Lurker > papercup

I'll be honest, this game is a better love story than FF8. >_> This is unfolding like a tragic play, and I'm actually kind of digging it.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

Apparently Ardyn just took my weapons. Thanks for informing/showing me earlier...? Seriously when did that happen lol
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

So, I'm guessing that Noct will only receive 5 of the 6 blessings. Titan, Ramuh, Leviathan, Shiva and Ifrit. There was that very short scene at the very very beginning of the game with the encounter of what I presume is Ifrit. So that's still coming up. Ardyn is apparently immortal, so I'm guessing he might have the 6th? Which I'm guessing is Bahamut. Or he might himself be one of the gods? But that's kinda weird. But there are those "Cosmogony" books all over the place that depict an angel-like being and a human.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

I'm playing the Steam version, which I think is the Royal edition.

Also Just got Shiva's weapon and blessing so I'm assuming I get 1 more armiger weapon from the main story, and I still need to go clear out Castlemark to get that weapon.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

On the train, just passed through Tenebrae. It really feels like I'm approaching the climax. I'm guessing after the final battle I go back to the open world? It's been a hallway of sorts for a while now.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

...Fuck you Gladio "Oh, you're sad because your girlfriend died? Well Ignis is blind!" Yeah...? Why shouldn't Noctis be upset about that...? I admit he doesn't really seem to care Ignis is blind, but still.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

When I fought the Zu I think I was like 68 or 69. Now I'm 70 iirc.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

....I climbed the Rock of Ravatogh again to fight the Zu. When I reached the camp I ate a Behemoth steak. Then I went and started the encounter. First I scanned it, then I activated the armiger, then I used the warp-strike. The warp-strike broke its beak and staggered it. Then the armiger killed it in about 10 seconds. I maybe went a little overboard with my choice of food. XD Whatever, I can always get more Behemoth tenderloins. I figured a level 67 4-star hunt mark would require a little more preparation than an average fight. lol But with that I am a rank 7 hunter.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

Zelda
Mario Odyssey
Mario Kart 8
Are all must haves

I also like:
Sonic Mania Plus
Golf Story
Fire Emblem Warriors

And I have heard good things about:
Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Octopath Traveler

And I'm sure there's a couple more I'm missing, but that should be a good starting point
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

That's a weird election system... but, no, fuck him, he lost.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

Entity13 posted...

papercup posted...

...Gladiolus just stopped me to wax philosophical about Cup Noodles and how I can make them taste better by adding shrimp. Okay Squenix whatever you say.

Then comes another Behemoth hunt that's far less terrifying or gratifying than the chocobo-related hunt earlier in the game, and the moment when you realize that too much of the game is actually an advertisement for the only thing the devs ate while they made the thing.

He actually told me he wants me to go fight the Karlabos. o.O I didn't do that yet cus I went up back around the lake and did a bunch of hunts and quests up there, then I went and got some stuff for Cindy. Gonna do one or two more things tonight, then do more story.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

...Gladiolus just stopped me to wax philosophical about Cup Noodles and how I can make them taste better by adding shrimp. Okay Squenix whatever you say.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

Never heard of him.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

I think we can all agree nobody holds a candle to Alpha
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/5/5d/FFXIV_Alpha_Render_01.png/revision/latest?cb=20170930234855

Look at him. He's god damn adorable.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

helIy posted...

what the fuck is eureka

It's a series of zones in the current FFXIV expansion for building relic weapons.
There are 4 zones, 3 of them are currently released.
Anemos
Pagos
Pyros is the current one
And early next year Hydatos is coming out, and it's presumably the last one.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

Judgmenl posted...

Bartz or Firion are probably stronger than Cloud
Tidus is not stronger than Cloud.

If we're going by raw damage numbers, I'm pretty sure Tidus is actually one of the strongest FF characters. It's really easy to make him hit the true 99,999 damage limit.

The Warrior of Light on certain Jobs, like Samurai or even Black Mage can do even more damage than that in a single hit, ignoring the Limit Break 3.

In Eureka, using the "Catastrophe" strat you can hit the damage limit of 999,999 on multiple targets at once.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

She was a little derpy, getting stuck on corners and doorways all the time. I had to double back and rescue her from herself more than once. But I lufs her.

Also the part in the power plant kinda just happened out of nowhere. I was like "Oh I guess we're doing this now. Thanks for explaining wtf is going on!"
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

I so wish I can have Aranea in my party permanently, but I know she has to leave me at some point. ;-;

Also I like Ardyn as a villain(I'm assuming he's a main villain. He sure seems like it.) He's arrogant and clearly toying with you. But I just can't buy for a minute that he's out and about in public places in enemy territory, and nobody recognizes him. Maybe they just thought nobody would think about how ridiculous that is.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

Oh lordy more lore book drama. Apparently a bunch of the Matoya's Hat codes were duplicated. Some people even got multiple codes. I don't even care about the hat, but that's super shitty. I think SE can email out replacement codes.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

Anything and everything is actually a monster in disguise whose sole purpose is to wreck your shit.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

So, apparently, Ninja has been streaming FFXI, and also a ton of people have been picking up recently. o.O That's very surprising. I'm sure it's only going to be a short-lived trend, but that's kinda cool. Also I think there's going to be an FFXI fan fest next week?
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

I think in Ultimate they really moved him away from that from what I hear. He has a sword now, and he's faster than he was in previous games.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

Don't pre-order games, people. Hopefully Bethesda caves and starts issuing refunds. Fuck 'em.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

omg. I just checked the SE store for updates on my order, and noticed the first lore book was in stock. So I snatched one up. That was a very lucky catch. Who knows when/if it will be in stock again.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

Yeah, I might as well. Just no idea when I'll be able to play it.

Anyway, got lots done in FFXV! Went from Chapter 3 to 7 today. So either there's going to be some really long chapters later, or the main story is actually on the short side. I'll be honest, the story is actually really good at making you want to see what's next. The whole "hey, you're a badass, you're going to be king, you're going to marry Lunafreya, you're going to save the world" is a pretty good motivator to move the story along. And there's some pretty epic moments like fighting Titan, or summoning Ramuh. I'm actually kind of enjoying myself despite the fact this game is all over the place and generally low in quality.

So I keep thinking what if they took this open world design, and applied to like an old school high fantasy, sword and sorcery, save the crystals from the four fiends and some big bad cosmic evil style FF game. Would that work? I don't know, they'd have to build a new battle system that actually works to pull something like that off. I'd like them to do job classes in a game like that, but that would be a huge undertaking to pull all of that off. Just something to consider. I doubt that's the direction the series will take.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

He's probably embarrassed about calling that guy a pedophile for no reason, so he doesn't want to live on this planet anymore.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

Ooh, yeah. So I was cleaning out some boxes, looking for old games I don't play anymore to sell on eBay, and I found a sealed copy of FFT War of the Lions, which I had no idea I owned. I think it's actually my brother's. He said he doesn't want it, and I'm trying to decide what I want to do with it. It doesn't go for very much on eBay, and like I said earlier I don't really have time at the moment to play another big RPG. I might just sit on it and play it this summer or something. Also I have no idea if my PSP still works or not.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

That being said, I always hear Vesperia was one of the better ones. If it goes on sale really cheap I might pick it up.

Speaking of sales, I've been on the fence all weekend about buying either Monster Hunter World, or Final Fantasy XII Zodiac Age in the steam sale. I'm that weirdo that actually kind of liked XII, and I'd be very much interested in playing a different version of it. MHW I keep hearing is awesome, but Smash Bros. Ultimate is coming out next week, and I can't really justify spending $40 on a 200 hour RPG, while I'm still playing FFXV, and have SSB on the horizon.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

Entity13 posted...

https://imgur.com/7dtclle

lol

Entity13 posted...

In other news, I am slowly climbing back into playing more Tales of Berseria. I will say that, compared to the other Tales games I've played, it has a small element akin to Metroidvania in that you need items or abilities gained later to go back and pick up other chests in older areas. Other Tales games were like "Oh, you're done with the story for this area? You should have collected everything already." It's kind of nice, though, even if the monsters don't really get any stronger.

I'm hoping to pick up Tales of Vesperia when it releases on the PS4, if only to support it finally being on a Sony system in an English speaking country. *Glares at the 360 version, the Japanese-only PS3 version, and Tales of Graces f*

I've never really been a big Tales fan. I played Phantasia, Symphonia, and of the Abyss. And liked them all fine enough. About 4 or so years ago I played through Xillia, and I can't honestly say I liked it. It was okay, I played through the whole thing, but it didn't really leave a lasting impression on me. I actually don't really remember anything about it. I just don't really have much a desire to play the newer Tales games.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

I liked the whole Disc of Cauthess part. Gladio was all "hey, Noctis, grow up" which is always great, and the encounter with Titan, while easy, was admittedly kind of epic. And then Ardyn stole my car, so I've been riding Chocobos around now. I've just been driving everywhere. I had no idea riding Chocobos was actually so useful in this game. >_> And that they can level up. And that I can recolor them. And name them. I colored Noct's bird a dark green, and named him Kwehbec, after my FFXIV bird. The other boys got blue, purple and red. So now I'm riding around in style.
Then I went through Ramuh's trial and killed Naga. I was all "oooh, Naga is a boss in this one?" turned out she was ridiculously easy.(I'm guessing partly cus I'm sporting some pretty strong weapons, and I'm almost level 60) so I'm guessing nagas might become regular enemies later? Anyway, Cindy told me where to get the car back. So I'm going to take a couple hours break and get back to it.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

Decided I would start out by farming Spiracorns for a Sturdy Helixhorn. Very first horn I broke dropped one. So, Ultima Blade get \o/
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

Most JRPGs seem to making leaps to modern technology, in a really big way, but for some reason, FF is just struggling to find an identity the last 10-15 years or so. Even though FFXV sold millions and millions of copies, it apparently wasn't enough to continue development of DLC. I really hope for FFXVI they take a long hard look at what isn't working in modern FF, and cut out the fat, and try to reestablish trust with the fans.

Also, #firstworldproblems I pre-ordered the new FFXIV lore book months ago. It released on Saturday, my account wasn't charged, I didn't receive any email about shipping info or anything like that. So I contacted support and they told me they didn't have enough copies to cover every pre-order. :P Isn't that the point of pre-ordering? To gauge how much to print? Whatever Hopefully that means I'm getting a copy of the second printing. Whenever the hell that is.

But, that WAS going to be my Christmas present, but it seems that isn't happening now, so instead I bought Ultimania Archive Vol.1 and 2. so that should be a very nice alternative.

And I didn't play FFXV yesterday because I had a migraine all day, but I'm feeling better, I'm done with work and have a few free hours so I'll do that now.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

Unreal Engine 3 is 14 years old it's far more stable and feature complete. Bethesda are just fucking terrible at game development.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

So I keep hearing everything has leaked and people are unhappy with the content of the leaks, but idk what was leaked.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

Finally got back to XV. So, I unlocked Rank 5 hunts, and continued with the story again. Went to get the sword behind the waterfall. When I play more tomorrow I'll do a few more sidequests and really get going with the story mode.

So there are things about this game I really do like. I actually like some of the art design. The buildings and cars all look nice and bulky. There's good use of color and shapes. Not everything looks that great though, like NPCs in towns and cities look unfinished and are hilarious to watch in the backgrounds of cutscenes. Also, I generally like the way enemies look, but I wish there was more variety in enemy types. I just did 4 hunts in a row where I fought gigantoads, and I was kind of sick of it by the end, they're easy to deal with, and none of them really did anything to me. There are things about the battle system I like. Like switching weapons mid combo, using my allies abilities to extend combos, all that good stuff. It's just, as I said in previous posts, not all the enemy types are well designed or fun to fight. But, also like I said in previous posts, I like some of the dungeons. Like Castlemark Tower I think for the most part is a well designed dungeon, except for the end bit where you keep going into the basement to fight tougher waves of enemies. Oh, and I actually like the four main characters, though Prompto still annoys me some.

Every time you turn the game on, it says "A Final Fantasy for fans and new-comers alike" or something to that effect, and I honestly hope this wasn't anybody's first FF game. lol I've spent enough time with it, and dealt with enough of the frustrations and weird design choices that if I had to rank it right now, it would be right down there with 2 and 8, but slightly above those. It's actually not a terrible game, it's okay, quality is all over the place, but I wouldn't say it's a good game. And it's definitely not a FF for fans OR new-comers lol. I don't know who this game is for.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

And here's an article by Imran Khan that is completely upfront about not playing the game, and he's completely respectful to everyone he talks to.
https://www.gameinformer.com/2018/11/23/discovering-why-final-fantasy-xiv-matters-to-its-fans

What a novel concept, not shitting all over the people you're interviewing because they're "weird"
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

...I think the author of this article might have issues.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/11/20/final-fantasy-xiv-fan-fest-2018-report/amp/

He's apparently some kind of video game journalist, but he's fucking baffled that people would cosplay at a FF convention. Imagine if a sportscasters saw football fan dressed in a jersey and facepaint, and they didn't know what they were seeing and thought they were a pervert. I'm not particularly into cosplay, it's not my thing at all, but I understand the reasons people do it. This guy seems to think the entire FF fandom is some weird kink thing, and he's really insulting about it too. And he clearly doesn't know anything about the game, and instead focused on ERP and brothels, something that only a very small subset of the playerbase participates in. WTF RPS, next time send somebody that has a clue.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

I'll just bump to keep this alive. Due to the holiday it will be a couple days before I get back to XV
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

https://thehardtimes.net/hardstyle/didnt-vaccinate-kids-one-lived-turned-fine/
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

But this game has a lot of problems. The camera is horrendous. It gets caught on walls all the time, the open areas have a lot of trees and bushes that get in the way often. There are enemies that are just not fun to fight, either because in groups they're frustrating to fight, or their attacks animations seem lacking, or the tells aren't clear enough. Or the attack will lock on to an enemy you're not looking at, or can't even see sometimes.The battle system is just lacking all around.

But, I actually like some of the dungeons, and some of them are seamlessly integrated into the world, and have branching paths and stuff like that. Needs more puzzles though.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

GanglyKhan posted...

That's not ALL the side content in 20 hours, is it?

Nah, I still have a bit left to do, but some of it is in parts of the map I can't get to yet(I think at least) or I just haven't found it. And I assume more will open as I continue with the story.

Edit: What I meant by "not much left" was just what I know about.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

Well, a little hard to say I'm still pretty early in the story, chapter 3. I spent the last 20 hours doing sidequests and hunt marks and optional dungeons. But there's not much left for me to do, so I'm getting back to the story pretty soon, and just try to power my way through it.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

Started Castlemark Tower. I got all the way to the bottom, and did the first descent into the bottom floor. The Red Giant or whatever took forever to down. I looked it up, and I have to do it 3 more times, each with more red giants... uh... I'll do this later. lol

Also I rested in the resort with a little over 200k saved up and gained 25 levels. lol So I'm 55 now.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

So, FFXV, I went down to the bottom of the Belouve Mines or whatever they're called and killed the Samurai that's 20 levels stronger than me. lol And I found the Bow of the Cleaver, which is actually a crossbow, but who's keeping track? :P
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

Idk why I'd save the piping, so I'll save my SNES
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

Hmm, had a thought. I hope "player farms" are a way to raise mobs to farm pelts and whatnot without having to farm them over and over in dungeons or the open world.

It's probably just going to be gardening for homeless players lol.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

Thanks, will do!

BTW, anyone curios about the server redistribution, here's population sizes before, and estimated after:

https://imgur.com/a/rmSk16P

Edit, oh, and some of what I've been hearing on reddit totally suggests SE wants the data centers to represent different subsets of the population. Aether and Chaos totally raider data centers. People are saying the servers moving to Light aren't really known for raiding, so if you're on one of those servers and you raid you should probably move to a Chaos server.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

Expansion announcement slides:
https://imgur.com/a/sA3Jq3V

Live Letter slides:
https://imgur.com/a/9gaAIjD

I mean, most of what they talk about here is fine. It's just, BLU got the shaft, and it's all I'm thinking about lol
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

Yeah, I kinda get the feeling rebuilding Doma in Stormblood was a test run for future content. I'm pretty sure Ishgard is the new Doma. But I want to live in Ishgard so I'll do it. lol
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925

Oh, also, I finished the third step of my first Pyros weapon. :) So, I'll keep doing Pyros to farm light and crystals, but pagos is such a trainwreck that in 2 months I finished 1 weapon there. it took me 2 weeks in Pyros. lol so I have to go back to Pagos to build more weapons. I'm very surprised they didn't nerf the grind in 4.45. Also... I think I'll build the DRK weapon next.
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Nintendo Network ID: papercups
3DS FC: 4124 5916 9925