Lurker > Isquen

FFXIV endwalker made me cry at the end, but it was also after a marathon session and it was 7:30 AM and I was delirious when the music vocals kicked in even though I knew they wouldn't dare.

Isquen posted...

Stilt Island

I mean Stilt Village, damnit.

Tagging and answering the bonuses.

First Video game moment:
Final Fantasy V, emulating it via a dodgy Superfamicom translation back in middle school, with Galuf dying. Mother 3's general treatment of Duster by Wess is also notable, being played for comedy and yet "what the hell no wonder this is never getting officially overseas." (How old is he supposed to be again?)

Celebrity Death
I wanna joke and say Betty White but I was sort of expecting it. Probably Anthony Bourdain for me, I dabble in following celebrity chefs and I didnt really expect that one.

Trilogy conclusion
Eh... not many know the series, but Exile/Avernum. Wall of text approaching.
The whole premise of it is an empire led by a despot mass banishes people for being an inconvenience of some sort or another (including some folks that were "problematic" for being gay - and this was the mid 90s, when the series began.) They're sent to a cave system deep below the earth, and some magi in the initial wave of banished adapt cave flora and fauna to support life, and they create an entire underground civilization (occasionally at odds with other cave denizens.)

Exile/Avernum 1, your party is one of the most recent formless groups of banished folk and you accomplish your goals of assassinating the despot, thwarting a huge demonic presence that wiped a few whole towns out of nowhere, and find a backdoor exit to the surface when the empire had attempted to close every one they could find.

Exile 2/Avernum 2 the empire, led by the chancellor Archmage manipulating the former emperor, retaliates and full on goes to war with the nation fighting for survival. Extremely potent magic barriers suddenly section off a bunch of portions of the caves, and your party happens across the source - an ancient race that uses a bunch of crystals as arcane foci. They were systematically trying to destroy the humans in their own retaliation for their elders, brain-uploaded in crystalline computers, being stolen away- without realizing Avernum and the Empire were two factions. This game ends with blowing up the Empire's mass teleporter, recovering all the ancient race's crystal-brains, and killing the Archmage (and his command center fortress, with a magical wildfire) that's antagonizing the war effort.

Exile/Avernum 3 has you finding a new path to the surface via teleportation experimentation to less dank and deep caves into the countryside of an isolated continent. The backwoods folk dont know much about the empire at large, but as you make incursions to the surface, the various provinces are being plagued by monsters of all sorts - magical slime, disease ridden giant cockroaches, ancient brutal troglodytes and giants, magic-capable golems, and six-legged beasts that resemble a hellhound. This ends by finding out the new empress isnt an asshole and theres hope for diplomatic relations between Avernum and the continent... and also by finding the cause of the monsters and basically going to war with a former ally (guess which faction.)

...I should really play Avernum 4 through 6 at some point.

Sports "loss"
I was living in a fraternity house in south NJ when the Phillies won the world series in 2008 against Tampa and it was fucking intolerable to be around anyone my age that cared about baseball. Someone went down my road and smashed a bunch of car mirrors in "celebration", my car included. Why the hell are Philly fans so destructive when they win?

Random emotional moment
There is a former drug abuser/mentally ill person that's well known in my town, toddling around at all daylight hours in the same style of dirty clothes, randomly yelling out whatever comes to his mind when he's got some kind of stimuli. He's been around at least 10 years doing this, but lately he sets me off because - and I know this is selfish to think it - I hate that he gets to live in his own little world like that whereas my mom retreated into full dementia after her heart attack and died within six months of not being a person I knew anymore.

So yeah that kind of thought intrudes whenever he wanders into work every so often and I kind of need to step away from earshot to not hear him and get angry/lament.

Dance of Wind
Stilt Island
Specimen of Life (Long Version)

Match 1 and match 2 were surprisingly close. Dance of Wind feeling like a Goemon track, honestly, and I'm feeling the vibes from both Pokemon and DKC today. Catch me on another day or hour and my opinion might sway.

Oh thank goodness this is back. I never partook beyond lurking in them, but I hated going to CE for it.

Oracles is my first choice (Ages up there for "favorite Zelda title" with Seasons slightly below TotK) but F Zero GX.... hnnng

The Best is Yet to Come
Wildfire
Mortified by Faith

I won't support it in the leadups until it decides to take an off-year, but I truly do enjoy TBIYTC. RTFM, on the other hand, as with most forms of Touhou, no thank you (it also doesn't hurt that Wildfire is somewhat of a banger.)

I was ready to scold Mortified by Faith for its length and my attention span but it passed without me even realizing it. It's pretty good!

Same Old Story
The Dreadful Fight
Queen in the Dark Night

Almost forgot to vote, but I fortunately did 5 of 6 listenthroughs earlier today, and caught up with Queen in the Dark Night. Surprise surprise, I enjoyed it.

Monitors and protects against spam on the platform plagued by advertising way worse and more numerous than a "pussy in bio" brigade. Yeah fucking right.

Fuck fandom.

R1: Name the Game: 10 points
+2?? Mega Man X3 - Boss battle (if it counts?); 0 Stellar Blade; -1 Xenogears; +2 Guilty Gear Strive; +2 Donkey Kong Country 3; -1 Ar Tonelico 2; +2 River City Ransom; 0 Another Crab's Treasure; +2 Paradise Killer (OH RED SKYYY); +2 Pokken Tournament;

R2: Connections: 18 points
[+1 Spirit Tracks, +2 Sonic (Game Gear), +2 Final Fantasy V, +6 Bridges (starring Greg)]; [+1 Kirby Triple Deluxe, 0 MGS2, 0 FF7R, 0 for theme]; [+2 Sonic (Genesis), +2 Paper Mario Thousand Year Door, +2 Animal Crossing, 0 for theme];

BR1: Name the Game Patreon Edition: 24 points
+2 Kingdom Hearts 2 (Curse you); +2 Link's Awakening; +2 Wind Waker; 0 Outer Wilds; 0 Spiritfarer; +2 Animal Crossing; 0 To The Moon; 0 Lies of P; 0 Divinity Original Sin 2; +2 Final Fantasy X-2; +2 Yakuza 0; +2 Genshin Impact (I blame azuarc); +2 Fire Emblem Fates; +1 Alan Wake; -1 Dark Souls 2; +2 Final Fantasy XIV; -1 Undertale (whoops); +2 Final Fantasy VI; +2 DK 64; 0 Lunar Silver Star Story; -1 Hyrule Warriors; +2 Ocarina of Time; +2 Vib-Ribbon (thanks, Chase)

All killer no filler question:
NieR Gestalt (NOT Replicant)

R3: Smash or Pass?: 48 points
+6 Smash/Melee; +2 Pass/0 Kirby Air Ride; +6 Smash/64; +6 Smash/Ultimate; -1 Pass/+4 Ultimate; -1 Pass/+4 Brawl; +6 Pass/Metroid Prime 2 Echoes; +4 Pass/Mega Man X Legacy Collection; +6 Smash/3DS&WiiU; +6 Smash/Ultimate

R4: GBC: 30 points
+10 Pokemon Pinball - Blue Table; +10 Oracle of Ages/Seasons - the Maku Tree; 0 Mega Man Extreme 2 (I THOUGHT it sounded familiar); +10 Shantae - Burning Town; 0 Lufia (huh, how about that.)

BR2: Before and After: 14 points
0 Life is Stranger of Paradise (whew, I thought the latter was from 13-2 and got confused); 0 New Super Mario Bros Wiiokden 4 (excuse me that's illegal); +14 Punch-Outrun

DREAM ROUND (point-free)
Correct - Jet Set Radio, Dunno - Skies of Arcadia, Correct - Sonic Adventure, Correct - Shenmue, Dunno - Code Veronica

Total: 144 points. Difficult one, today. I'm trying to think where in XIV that variant of Eternal Wind plays, but unless it's the Wandering Minstrel I haven't the foggiest.

htaeD posted...

Lets pool together all our discarded mafia plans from past games into one future setup

Phasmomafia was intended to be one scum and everyone's role was vanilla until they were dead - people could still post after death with no DTC until "exorcised" with another hanging and the scum acted like a cult leader except their team didn't lose on the head's own exorcism - until I realized it was hard as fuck to balance with everyone needing to double-die, especially if said demon/host was specialed day 1. The only people with abilities were once-dead people (such as "Shade" having Ninja properties.)

Already complained on Discord about being the stuck at work part and the argh.

Tagging.

My to-do before Dawntrail:

• Finish the final trial on Extreme (and ideally, get the mount, which will get me the last one for all the lynxes.
• Finish Loporrits and the combination tribal achievement for the dance emote.
• Finish two more Yokai (the two that require Stormblood zones)
• Level Ninja up so I have a good starting gear of Scouting for Viper.
• Catch the fucking Sidereal Whale that's screwing me out of the Final Fish title (IF IT EVER WAS UP AT A DECENT HOUR.)

Not many goals, this month is pretty much going to be SGDQ trip preparation (plus summer reading program at work.) Gonna miss the first release week, not gonna bother downloading it during the trip.

EDIT: went looking for the old b8 list, and found... *a* link. The link appears to not have anything on it anymore.
Here I am, though.

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/character/23386495/

Black tar
Morning Dew
Vector to the Heavens

I'm sorry but I keep reading the Arknights song as "Mountain Dew" and I can't take it seriously even with it trying to sound sweet, but I can take it more seriously than the GBV track.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

https://x.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1796287752918720677?t=u9Jgj6UqkZwOtMisAvJzxA&s=19

Lost in New York was decades prescient.

What a time to be browsing AP news at work.

Kind Lady (Funk Disco Extended Mix)
Death by Glamour
Battle: The Skyscraper

Every match today is rude, they're all really cool.

Although Mania was also good. Hm.

Sonic 3 and Knuckles
Sonic Adventure 2 Battle
Sonic Generations
Sonic Frontiers

A good one from each generation.

Hercule Poirot (Agatha Christie novels)

Sewers
[ai]
Jungle Journey

Birdman
We form in crystals
The Apex of the World (Rain)

Devil Forest
Flamerock Refuge
Spiral of Erebos

I am immediately suspicious of an artist that just alters "priapism" as their name, but more power to them, I guess. It was a cool song, but I was feeling Devil's Forest more.

Match 2 is really difficult for me. Mechonis Field is such a vibe, but Flamerock Refuge, apart from being something unexpected from what I already know of Borderlands, hits a few of the right notes.

Match 3 is also really difficult. Kitsch sounds like it fell out of a racing game, not a fighting game, yet Spiral of Erebos feels like it should've retired years ago. Gotta hand it to Falcom on this one.

Voted the second specifically for Binding of Isaac, an information overlay on a visible pickup. That game has way, way too many items with descriptions that are misleading or absent.

Norfair
Faster Than Light
Lunar Bass

Giving it a Necromancy bump for the overnight. If I continue this tomorrow, perhaps I'll pick a literary character next.

Smash Mario is a Bright Wizard from Warhammer Fantasy. He's just hallucinating all the mushrooms and swordsmen and ambulatory animals from getting too close to the Flame.

See, I wouldn't call him a sorcerer at all (except maybe in Smash) because no innate supernatural things, it's all powerups.

Bringing it up because:

• I have a few ideas floating around in my head for other fictional characters, and for various RPG systems, at that, and can possibly do a periodic topic about it (including nominations)
• TTYD is re-releasing nowabouts
• I'm interested in other opinions, or if certain people multi class, and how screwy an interpretation can get.

For example -in D&D 5E I would argue that Gordon Ramsay is a College of Swords Bard, with his performance put into culinary. He's got Vicious Mockery down pat, you idiot sandwich, and he has quite the proficiency with cutlery.

So, Mario. I dont need to give a background on him to you, I hope, but for future ones or more obscure picks I will- what tabletop class would Mario be? Be as loose or as rigid as you want- and if you use an odd system, consider that.

Since we're starting off as basic as it gets, I'm going to spoiler my own opinion- feel free to argue or posit your own thoughts.
Mario is a D&D 3.5e Rogue. Willing to risk life and limb for collectibles, strangely good acrobatics despite his build, yet not the greatest if he isn't surprise-attacking something, and way, way too much proficiency in Use Magic Item. If he weren't so acrobatic, I might even consider him a 5e Artificer.

+3 I am Setsuna
+2 Final Fantasy 6
+1 Dragon Quest 7

Setsuna because the combat poaches heavily off CT plus spoilers. FF6 because the same company, and the ingame spritework/artstyle. DQ7 because Toriyama while also being a decent RPG in it's own right (supposedly.)

I was thinking 10 myself, both design and the implied being the Child Fayth of Exposition.

I like cooking it with chicken broth, a splash of olive oil, and lemon in a covered wok, then adding whatever meat - usually some turkey meatballs.

Rice also shares real estate in a good avgolemono- a Greek egg-and-rice soup good hot or cold that's mostly just lemon juice and an egg (the tricky part is not scrambling it while you do the prep, but it's one of the best meals I tried to make in the past two years)

Enclosure South America Jungle
Blue Desert Hotel
Portals

Afternoon in Crossbell
Secundum Abandoned Mine
d3molish

Gordon Ramsay
Julia Child
Anthony Bourdain
Martha Stewart

:)!

Oh, Red lobster makes the cheddar bay biscuits? And here I was making them from scratch as a modification to my own garlic biscuits.

I didnt contribute to this one because of... well, lack of thinking about it. Shame, I might skew the results a bit, but nothing too surprising.

Good Riddance
Fight Another Day (Andy Tunstall Remix)
The Kingdom

Anyone else getting Billie Eilish vibes on match 2? It's the antithesis of Labyrinth 4, where Fight Another Day grew really cool about a minute in whereas Labyrinth 4 started strong and then just... petered out for me.

Both of match 1s are good but I can't get into Weapons Drawn that much. Jackbox music to me is almost always "oh geez Greg is on the floor drunk again someone get him some water" background music. Good effort from the vocalist but the instruments are reminiscent of a bad horror film. Meanwhile, I am apparently acoustic-guitarsexual with how much I love the duet literally celebrating the release of death.

Match 3 is certainly something, and, uh, I lived through the 90s once already. That CD song has always been a big ol' nope for me, and listening to it tonight didn't change my mind on that. The Kingdom sounds like... gah, idk what to describe it as, but whatever it is, it's better than You Can Do Anything (But Please Me Apparently)

Dead Town Chat: https://discord.gg/AJWMRaDc
Scum Chat: https://discord.gg/a3MNEK5f
Scum Board: https://darkesttimeline.freeforums.net/
Ben Chat: https://discord.gg/m6yzS5aR
Ctes Chat: https://discord.gg/BbMcRhEw

From the final post so that I may see it easier when I've got free time.

:)

So hey I've got like the entirety of overnight to go over plus the catchup on DTC but Blade, it I may put in a complaint: chill the fuck out. Being rabid in game is fine and dandy for reaction fishing but you took it way too far. I had NOTHING against you, and then you try to bring up a non participant that I dont play with because she's a giant headache to follow a topic and does nothing town friendly when insulted- kind of like you visibly did until the final day. Yes, I know where your night actions went, and congrats for that, but going off on me like that for asking that my vote be swapped to you if I was stuck on two options was, now that I'm not in modkillable territory, a fucking dick move.

Quick, roast my old ass account while you're at it. Maybe we can use the heat to cook up a competent bisque.

(Red Lobster has always sucked and I'd get sick from it whenever we had it as a kid. Good riddance, but ugh that capitalism takes a W out of its L.)

Kain / Salvation
Afternoon in Crossbell
Let's Go, Mt. Corel!

(Thank you for posting, hb)
Kai-eh-nay being here is actually a bit of a bummer that the FFXIV version didn't make it, which is close to it with some added dread and wistfulness both, but the original is simple and emotional. I enjoy it, but I won't be upset if Shining Eyes takes it though, Dariusburst is cool to lose myself into for a bit also.

I've made my views about Astra walkthrough's ilk known well enough.

Sort of ambivalent on match 3, but Corel does more interesting things for me somehow. Hamauzu with a rare personal-opinion miss?

Yeah, theres a whole-ass video of me being drunk on film at some point and one of my jackass fraternity brothers likely kept it (and others) as blackmail.

Shop Demo
Farde Mal Diavolo -Destroy Evil, then Come-
Mario Kart 8

Sog-Gee's Realm (Water)
Can't Wait Until Night
Birdo II

That fever dream of a video is distracting, but I still liked it more than Rubia. Dat bass.

Goodbye, RuneScape, it was nice to see you, however briefly.

(More like Ephemeral Root amirite)

Isquen posted...

XBox child getting launched from the womb, aging through puberty and growing old as they scream through the sky, landing in their grave a few moments later.
Early Paul Rudd Zelda commercial
Final Fantasy X-2 just basically showing a cut of the real Emotion scene.

For the first one: amend it to - "XBox - Life is Short"
https://youtu.be/y3jZB4sxA_w

For the second and third one here, remove those, add on the DoA3 "she kicks high" and the creepy PS3 doll because holy shit that thing.

Smash 64 (Me and you and you and me...)
XBox child getting launched from the womb, aging through puberty and growing old as they scream through the sky, landing in their grave a few moments later.
Early Paul Rudd Zelda commercial
Final Fantasy X-2 just basically showing a cut of the real Emotion scene.