Lurker > pyresword

3 through 5 are all great but it's still 3 by a lot. The dark, bleak tone of 3 suits the series much better imo, and I don't like the way 4 and 5 compartmentalize character development by giving them precisely one month of relevance when it's their chapter or whatever and then throwing everything else behind a social link.

Guess I'll probably pull some on the second banner. I don't currently want Argenti but I do kind of want Hanya, and I definitely won't say no to Lynx eidolons or the off-chance of a Silver Wolf eidolon.

Trailer looks interesting. I've been wanting the main story to explore a bit more in the cosmic sci-fi direction so I'm hoping that's what the beginning is suggesting.

Swarm Disaster level 4 beated. Don't think I'm beating the last difficulty level any time soon though because this was only with some serious abuse of the blessing that gives you extra turns from weakness breaks, and I still only won by the skin of my teeth.

I was always under the impression that Japan more often does group voice recording sessions instead of everyone recording their lines separately, which if true definitely matters I think.

I'm told the anime is nearly a panel-by-panel adaptation.

I only watched the anime, but I'd be pretty surprised if it added much, and I actively disliked Johan's voice in the Japanese version.

I like Welt, Jing Yuan, and Screwllum.

Oh nice randomly pulled Clara from the standard banner after getting more passes when the shop reset. Would have rather gotten Bronya I guess but this is probably the second best option* and is definitely a character I'd like to have access to. Of course I am not going to have her built at any time soon but I digress.

*Ok maybe Gepard might be more useful but come on this dude is the most boring character in existence.

I definitely did not like Lloyd more after Reverie.

Many characters maintained the same standing more or less, but really the only major characters I liked more as a result of Reverie are Rean and the Ironbloods, and in the case of the latter it's in large part because I was previously at an all-time low on them due to how Cold Steel 4 went down.

I guess maybe Ash actually, now that I think about it.

Also I suppose Reverie didn't make me like Renne more exactly, but it did make me much more enthusiastic about her continued presence in the series.

Frieren is much better than Oshi no Ko out of the options from the poll that I've seen. (Oshi no Ko still in like the "above average" tier or something)

Still been meaning to watch Heavenly Delusion and Apothecary Diaries which look very good.

Also a bit interested in Skip and Loafer and Insomniacs, but the others I'm pretty sure I would not like.

It just posted the "day 5" results immediately after doing the trade last night for me.

It's not too hard with the right team (I think I had the same one as catesdb) but I did get irritated at the final boss of Aetherium Wars just because there's entire strategies which work for every fight except that one.

Posting to say that I will be voting in the contest but will probably be unable to for the first 3-4 days or something

I couldn't verify this information but everyone was saying they got the actual voice actors for Jessie and James in the English version of the game.

Oh yes only lost one song so far. The fact that it's 1 out of 2 does not matter why do you ask

Huh. Got 2 stars on MoC 10, which I didn't think I'd even be able to finish at all so quickly, though I suppose given the number of Fuels I'd been hording I guess I'm really a lot further along than "a week at Trailblaze level 60" might suggest.

Was also aided by this cycle's special battle effect being both very strong in general and specifically with Qingque who I just dumped a ton of resources into. Can definitely say my team without Fu Xuan needed the effective extra turns granted by the freeze effect in order to not die.

To be clear Canary Mary would be one of the most frustrating if it were in DK64 also so I'm exaggerating a bit. There's definitely several in DK64 I'd include in the same conversation though.

Banjo Tooie never forced you to collect all the notes in one life/visit even in the original release.

I liked Kazooie more than Tooie although I like both quite a bit. Probably 2 of my favorite platformers overall.

Punnyz posted...

I'm getting the impression that DK64 is Tooie x10 from yall

I wouldn't really say this because I think the issues are of a different nature. In Banjo Tooie the levels are interconnected and/or reliant on powerups from later levels so you're constantly having to go back and forth from one level to the other throughout the game. With DK64 it's more just that there's so much to collect and all the collectables can only be found by specific characters and it's just a lot to manage. Also a lot of the bananas in DK64 require you to complete some incredibly frustrating minigames. (Edit: Imagine like the Canary Mary race but there's 10 others like it)

The most useful unit I have is Fu Xuan by a lot, I think, though idk how long it would be for her banner to be rerun. Generally agree though that pulling for a dps or a tank unit is good since you're still able to get pretty good supports just sticking to the 4-stars.

Though I'm also of the belief that pulling for characters you like is a better experience than pulling for characters you think are strong so *shrug*.

5 is my least favorite out of the Persona 3/4/5 soundtracks but I still think it's pretty reasonably solid.

I liked it. It's probably a lot of nostalgia, but I do think there are a fair number of things to like about the game. Most of the common complaints are valid.

Is that something the executive branch can do by itself? Not that I'm sure this could stop him since the GOP might follow in lockstep behind Trump, but I'm just trying to understand what the situation is.

Nice Swarm Disaster level 3 beated. ...I imagine this is not going to get any easier after this huh.

I like playing Preservation in Swarm Disaster a lot because in addition to not dying the path passive gives you so many blessings it's like you're playing every path.

Pretty sure you're correct about the story thing BK. There was definitely a point right there or soon after there where the story stopped.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Like, the biggest victory I've ever seen anyone get against them was taking down Weissmann

Honestly though a good chunk of Ouroboros is probably just as happy about this is as the good guys are.

I'm reasonably far along getting Qingque built up now (I did and still do have a lot of Fuel saved up...), and gut reaction is she's actually pretty good. Feels much better than the other Erudition characters I have. Their builds were never well optimized, but the difference is significant enough I don't think it matters. I will say I'm notably missing Jing Yuan though.

I guess one downside is you can't really pair her with any character who also wants to use their skill a lot and still expect her to put out a ton of damage.

That...makes a lot more sense haha. I don't know too much about him but it seems like it's probably good for him if thats true.

I'm pretty sure Jingliu doesn't have anything that counts as a follow-up attack, though I guess I haven't tested it myself. The wording is that her next action is advanced by 100%.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

messes up speed tuning

Yeah I can probably see this.

For me that just isn't something I'm worried about, partially because I'm not sure I would enjoy trying to min/max this game to that level of detail, but also even if I did I don't think I'm at the point where worrying about that makes sense. I've got bigger issues like the fact that I don't even have gold relics with the right main stats on my characters yet >.>

(I do have almost all relics with the right main stats, but a good deal of them are purple)

I use 4-piece Wind on Dan Heng and am pretty sure it's at least comparable to the alternative.

Trails into Reverie

Dudley and Erebonian Dudley going on coffee dates is peak Trails and nobody is convincing me otherwise.

I think Rutilant Arena is pretty cleanly the strongest as long as you have enough Crit Rate to trigger the secondary ability while Jingliu's talent is active (not hard to achieve at all).

Edit: I think talent is the wrong term...whatever her passive enhanced mode thing is called.

Wish I'd known about the double Simulated Universe rewards before I used all of my Immersifiers this week failing to get anything worthwhile...

A normal, sane person: Well I just reached equilibrium 5 and need another AoE damage dealer up to 80. I'm a bit starved for resources so let's just try and get there with my level 70 Serval or Himeko.

Me: y'know I just think Qingque* is neat and I wanna fling some jade tiles at people.

*Currently at level 20

I don't actually care a whole lot for the climax of 1. I don't remember being too thrilled with the climax of 7 or 8 either, though I guess we'll see what happens on this readthrough. (I didn't make it to the end of 10 so technically cannot comment there, but let's just say I'm not at all surprised by your assessment)

I know when I read the series (through book 10) last that 4 and 5 were the clear standouts to me, so I'm excited to be getting to those books again

Finished rereading Wheel of Time book 3.

I feel like I had this opinion of several of the books, but this was a very good climax whereas the rest of the book was a bit hit-or-miss. The climax though definitely has that chaotic feel of a bunch of different plot threads suddenly crashing together in a very satisfying way, even if the trek to get there sometimes dragged a bit. The Egwene/Nynaeve/Elayne plot was consistently good though, and this book is definitely the start of Mat turning into probably my favorite character of the series. Love him so much.

2 > 1 > 3 is my ranking on this readthrough which I think is probably the same as I had last time also.

I already know everyone on Twitter has a theory which is why I'm looking for information from a reputable source that has gone through some effort to verify that information.

I did find this BBC article which is the type of thing I'm looking for but doesn't really come to any conclusion beyond not being able to dismiss either side of the story out-of-hand.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67144061

Is there any reputable and reasonably impartial source that has reported verified information on the hospital in Gaza?

I did see what Biden said but don't believe the US to be impartial.

I didn't actually give them enough of a chance to judge but I definitely dropped the show within 2 episodes of those two being introduced.

Those stats are way too low for Pom Pom anyways.

I'm like that when I'm caught up but I took a 2-3 month break and had a huge backlog of things that hasn't been finished yet.

Edit: Well not with achievements actually which I mostly just ignore and treat as a bonus when I get them, but with the other stuff at least.

catesdb posted...

oh yeah I agree with this

there just isnt anything time-gated locked behind them, so they arent at the top of my priority list

This is fair. I think I still have 2 or 3 unfinished also.

The companion missions are the best part of the game from a story perspective and it's not close tbqh

LeonhartFour posted...

Nidia and Swin are supposed to be the characters from the books in Cold Steel IV, right? Three and Nine, right?

Yes

I'm pretty sure I never used the Azure Droplets and I don't really know why.

Tag.

I wish I liked Daughter of a Dark God but even as an opera music fan it just sounds very bad to me. (I wouldn't really describe this as "opera music", but it does at least have opera-style vocals...I digress)

EXEC_over.METHOD_SUBLIMATION I think is great but I can sort of understand ranking the full version low. The only phase I really love is the 3rd one and the others are just sort of fine.

Wait a minute can I get my characters all the way up to level 80 after reaching equilibrium level 5? If so then what does equilibrium level 6 even do? Just upgrade traces one last time?

Well they're both the same class which focuses on single-target DPS. Seele's element is somewhat better though I wouldn't really say that's a big deal without some of the earlier relevant characters like Silver Wolf.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Other 1.6 character is Dr Ratio, Imaginary Hunt.

Well that's probably a big miss. Maybe I shouldn't judge until/if the story properly introduces him (I didn't like Screwllum until he appeared in-game either), but his character design doesn't exactly inspire confidence. I could probably use an Imaginary Hunt character admittedly, but that isn't enough to sway me alone.

I don't really want Topaz or I think any of the 1.5 characters so I will probably have a lot of Jade for whoever comes after that. (I guess assuming I still play regularly through that time period which is not a guarantee)

Ruan Mei sounds like a character I'll probably go for. Don't know who else is in 1.6 or any later patches though I know I want Screwllum whenever he eventually drops.

I like Honkai Star Rail and it definitely has lots of content, almost all of which is pretty doable even free-to-play. The lore is very cool and it's pretty fun to play. The main story is...serviceable to good and a lot of the side missions are quite entertaining.

It's sort of weird because I actually think the main story is the weakest part of the Honkai Star Rail story, but I'm reasonably high on the overall picture.

Ok yeah Jingliu definitely makes all my other dps characters look like a joke.

Of course I'd been stuck with Dan Heng as basically my only single target DPS character of note, but I digress. (Arguably Silver Wolf I guess, but at E0 she can't quite keep up with Dan Heng in terms of raw damage numbers despite being more useful overall.)