Lurker > NFUN

that song should've gotten a 10/30

0 villiany 0 characterization 10 melody

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You shine, and make others shine just by being near them.

3 > 5 > 1 > 2 > 4

for some reason I haven't done the last two hours of I but it'd probably be between 2 and 4, or maybe 1 and 2

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You shine, and make others shine just by being near them.

I like how me and MSG spent ten minutes trying to figure out how to friend each other before giving up because no menus actually do what you think they would

And where can I claim my twin scarf alliance reward!

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You shine, and make others shine just by being near them.

god dammit the cursed of ermine reigns supreme

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You shine, and make others shine just by being near them.

Ra
Geofront
Elferia fuck it it's nekomata's year

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Steiner posted...

note nobody hosted it the year drak won but that didn't stop him, what a beast

no i definitely remember you making and posting about the finals on discord

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HillaryFan posted...

So tomorrow is Juneteenth, a day marking the end of slavery. Do you think there could be a chance that Trump would announce that involuntary servitude (something horrible no doubt) be re-legalized tomorrow? The reason why this is on my mind is not because I want that to happen (I am 100% against involuntary servitude of any kind and I have black friends) but because Biden's been doing pretty well on the polls so far, however if protests are big enough and things get out of hand because of his announcement, it could justify Marshall law being enacted which means no elections and Trump stays as president for as long as Marshall law is in effect. It is definitely not something that I want to see happen but unfortunately I have to account for that possibility so I can mentally prepare myself.

who's Marshall?

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ok my compat thing is up Direkrow 2019 some rights reserved

let me know if anything breaks also i'm too lazy to consider megas

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Solid Snake (Sprite Round)

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nfunsemail at gmail

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You shine, and make others shine just by being near them.

yo give me edit access

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You shine, and make others shine just by being near them.

Drak won forever

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You shine, and make others shine just by being near them.

that reminds me that i didn't see IWF 2019 yet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Lr9ALAtCA

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You shine, and make others shine just by being near them.

Nightmare (clean save) on FC was hell.

Nightmare (clean save) on 3rd was sometimes complete bullshit and sometimes the best moments I've ever had in a JRPG

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You shine, and make others shine just by being near them.

sorry for what?

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You shine, and make others shine just by being near them.

Hello Board 8. I hear some of you like VGM and I hear some of you like Trails and I hear that the intersection between these two sets is very interesting.

I also hear that there are "Evolution" ports of these games and finally hear, with my ears, using headphones, that the songs in these ports sound different to the songs in the original games! And difference in music cannot be tolerated--these songs must either be a saving grace of the series or a sin, a mistake, an abomination that should never have existed.

Let's see which it is (ok i think most people have an idea already but shush)!

I will randomly assign songs from FC, SC, 3rd, Zero, or Ao to people who are interested, split between those who have expressed interest. Maybe it'll be even, maybe it'll be like azuarc's reverse rankings where you can request more, maybe you can volunteer to do entire soundtracks. You'll listen to the original and Evo version of each song (and other arrangements as a bonus, if you want) and rate each.

Since you'll be rating both versions, you don't need to have any prior knowledge of the soundtracks to participate. If you want to avoid spoilers, I can avoid giving you songs from games you specify.

Do your best to rank on a flat distribution if possible, I suppose, or give me ideas of how to statistically play with the data. In fact, I'm open to any suggestions for this (including "don't do it"). I'll probably actually start it after VGMC ends; I just had this idea now and wanted to throw it out into the world.

Give me any ideas and tell me if you're interested

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Celestial Resort (Good Karma Mix)? More like Celestial OWNED (Good OWNED Mix)!
The Least 333sec? More like The MOST OWNED 666!

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+3 Blind Justice

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hype

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You shine, and make others shine just by being near them.

Jesus that sounds incredible

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You shine, and make others shine just by being near them.

If you were to design a specifically specifically to be the least appealing to me, this'd probably be it

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You shine, and make others shine just by being near them.

remember to play oneshot

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You shine, and make others shine just by being near them.

@LeonhartFour Null results from my experiment

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You shine, and make others shine just by being near them.

Drakeryn posted...

also I think compatibility stats would be cool although I have no idea how difficult they are to do

This is a problem I've thought about in another context. The issue is that people score on different scales so that you can't look at the difference between scores for a given pokemon between people and expect it to give useful information.

Consider there people--Dire, who scales based around a bellcurve centered at 7, Ermine, who has one centered at 4, and NFUN, whose is centered also at 7. We rank Bulbasaur and Charmander. Ermine and Dire think Bulbasaur is fine, so they give him a 4 and 7, respectively. I don't like him, so I give him a 4. Charmander is ok, so he gets a 7 from me. Dire and Ermine like him, so Dire gives out a 9 and Ermine a 7. From this, it looks like me and Ermine have great compat despite us not sharing any opinions at all, while he and Dire agreed entirely and didn't have a great score.

Of course, this is a very simple example. This assumes normal score distributions which isn't a great assumption. For this, you could simply find the average scores people gave and do a little manipulation to change the average to 5 or 7 or whatever. Generally, I don't think you can normalize people's scores in a way to easily compare them between people. If anybody can think of a good way I'd love to hear it

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everything about the character except for race, class and probably sex IIRC. things like eye color or clothes you can change whenever you want, but proportions, etc you have to pay later to change

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you can also remake aesthetics for up to 6 hours after you create a character

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You shine, and make others shine just by being near them.

Haste_2 posted...

Wow, with all that voting data you could create compatibility stats.

not easily, no. naive compatibility comparisons don't well work for data with many degrees of freedom

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Wanglicious posted...

uhhh....

https://twitter.com/NYCPDDEA/status/1272721892131188743

we are at the point where people working at shake shack are literally poisoning cops.

perhaps. or we could be at the point where cops are literally lying about being poisoned by people working at shake shack. not making a claim either way, but the police as a whole have lost their credibility for shit like this

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Jirachi 9
Deoxys 10
Dialga 8
Palkia 6
Darkrai 7
Arceus 6.5
Victini 4
Keldeo 3
Genesect 7
Magearna 4
Marshadow 4.5
Zeraora 2
Eternatus 4

Deoxys Attack 10
Deoxys Defense 7
Deoxys Speed 10

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Hbthebattle posted...

SDMB can still win a possible it vs. Zeal match through PMD SFF

SFF only determines margins of victory. The stronger song should still win regardless. You're thinking of rSFF, I think, which seems fake

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hahahahahahahaaa

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Akeldama
Kishgal
guess we don't get videos for the third match which is unfortunate because I need to relisten to know which of these two GOATs i want to vote for

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azuarc posted...

Backwards. Nothing embarrassing about using a post to accomplish two things. I was looking up the link for the next song. You, on the other hand, should have seen that I had already posted the same thing long before.

Me not noticing your old post was just me missing a post, not seeing something. You getting beaten by me by only a minute is, I believe the kids call it getting "ninja'd". You got "OWNED". rolf

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azuarc posted...

There was over an hour gap between our first posts. There was a minute between the second pair.

then it's even more embarrassing that you were too slow by a minute!

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here are some chest quotes i never posted




One final thing I think I forgot to mention: did anybody else find the story of Shizuki's pendant for Arios SUSPICIOUSLY reminiscent of the Happiness Stone from 3rd?

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azuarc posted...

Too slow!

Super Hexagon - Focus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFv6SCKIQPg

NFUN posted...

oh lol I got beaten to that song

EBF4 - Van al Tag Extended I guess

Too slow!

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oh lol I got beaten to that song

EBF4 - Van al Tag Extended I guess

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pyresword posted...

A large part of the Falcom fanbase likes to draw Rean/Lloyd parallels and I just..don't really agree. There are similarities in terms of how they interact with their companions, but I'm not sure how much further I would take any comparisons. In particular, to me one of the defining aspects of Rean's character is that at every stage of the narrative (so far) he's crippled by a sense of uncertainty in his identity and what he wants to accomplish, and also by a fear of his own agency in the world and that he might take actions that he later comes to regret. Lloyd doesn't really have any of that, and I'd argue in he can be viewed as a foil to Rean in the sense that one of Lloyd's defining characteristics is an unyielding ability to cut through such uncertainty and identify exactly what his role is and embrace it. I suppose, just characterizing them as foils must mean that there is some lens through which the characters can be viewed similarly, but I do steadfastly reject the idea that they are the same character. (This isn't exactly what you said, but it is what I've seen a lot fans of the series say)

That's probably fair. I'll re-examine this when I play Cold Steel again. I think part of the problem is that a lot of people don't find them to be particularly interesting characters, so the nuances of who they are beyond "always knowing the perfect say to their friends" and "being perfect leaders" gets lost.

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Epic Battle Fantasy IV - Crystalis Fantasia

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UshiromiyaEva posted...

Hey I'm doing my part.

.

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Epic Battle Fantasy IV - Dustblown Travels

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OneShot - On Little Cat Feet

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Fuck i forgot this song. This was great, especially in context
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVPmrpqI8BA

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No enemy weak to Seal survived long enough for me to ever need to worry about it! The rare times I'd like to have the enemies sealed, it was easier for Randy to smoke bomb them all because of the higher chance and larger range

i also had two ingenuitys from a fish reward

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you can buy a taser without a permit in most states. legally speaking, as far as i can tell, the weapon is equivalent to a baton... or a baseball bat. you're arguing that somebody who punches a cop and grabs a stick off of the ground deserves the death sentence, carried out summarily without a trial. and i can bet that you don't think cops should shoot anybody who gets into a fight with any kind of weapon deserves to get shot. fundamentally, you're saying that assault on a police officer is a capital offense

this is odious, even by your standards. KP was right

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Time to cheat, then!

Celeste - Reach for the Summit

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normal attacks are kind of garbage on not-Normal in FC and SC but they do get better past the Prologue with better builds and are actually good in 3rd

There is a way to get a +50 STR item in the first chapter that I can tell you if you really find yourself needing it

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It was really interesting playing these after Liberl and the first Erebonia arc. You can see how the style of the series "progressed". I used the quotes because I got a strong impression that they had most things of Erebonia planned out before this game; I know 3rd and Crossbell weren't initially mapped out into the series and were added later, and I theorize that the planning that went into Cold Steel was basically finished by the time they started working on this, down to mechanics and characters. Like, Zero seemed almost "rushed" and the "progression" I mention was deliberate instead of natural.
For example, they simplified the quartz/arts system a lot in a way that felt off, even after I got used to it. There were less tiers for each quartz, Elie and Tio's grids were pretty mediocre for casters, and the philosophy for element totals for arts was strange. It almost seemed that they were trying to wean us off of such dependence on lines. I don't think they would've built it this way if they didn't already know Cold Steel would get rid of the system entirely.
As for characters, they recycled aspects of others a lot. Lloyd and Guenter were obviously just Rean and Alba. Elie has the background of Alisa, down to hiding her true identity until it's directly relevant. Randy had an almost identical background, as far as we know, to Fie, and Tio is basically Tita, Renne and Fie combined in role, background and personality, synthesized into one character. The Special Support Section as a unit is treated just like Class VII. Et cetera. This didn't bug me too much; it was just something that stood out a lot.

The story and pacing was really good by this series's standards. Like the ending, it actually seemed pretty normal. I don't necessarily dislike long buildups like FC, but "objectively" speaking, it was way too slow. Here we got introduced to the Mafia plotting stuff early and they kept the intrigue building at a nice pace in the open rather than tantalizing hints. It kind of felt that they dropped the Viper Saber/Testaments plot and only cared about Wazy, which is fine I guess. The cult plot was cool if not mindblowing--I'm more excited to see what the deal with KeA is (probably Falcom's goal tbh).

I think I said it my first post in the original topic that the characters had potential. More or less, they lived up to it. Individually, they were definitely above Class VII's average, and I was actively interested in all of them (I mean, Lloyd is kind of whatever but yeah). Sergio was a cool boss and KeA is an amazing adorable ball of sunshine that I love. And there was a fair amount of Estelle, Joshua and Renne so things couldn't be too bad.

I'm glad that there was at least one arc in the series that takes place in the same area. The games are at their best in regards to the NPCs, and having an entire game to develop them was clearly a good decision, at least in regards to the city. I didn't really care about Mainz or Armorica tbh. Plus, the roads were easily the best and prettiest in the series (the seaside routes in Ruan could give it a run for its money, though). When I was doing the photography quest, there were a few areas that I thought were designed to have photos taken of, but weren't part of the request--they were just super scenic because.

I think the gameplay was the worst so far. It didn't really have the freedom to make quartz builds like TitS did, and CS went all out on their Master Quartz system and came up with something else that ended up being pretty good. Like I said, it was intentionally stuck in the middle, and that aspect suffered for it. Combo Crafts were a cool idea, but you didn't really have a reason to use them. It's more convenient to use S-Breaks, which also tended to do more damage as far as I can tell. I don't think there was ever a moment where using them was the best decision; either I used them because they're cool or realized it wasn't worth it afterwards. A couple I think had cool effects maybe... eh.
They tried to fix the damage scaling TitS had... but that was only really a big problem in FC, and by the 3rd it seemed pretty natural. Originally, most basic Arts were better because of use times. In this, basic Arts from a caster against high-level enemies did between like 1-300 damage, while Avalon Gate or Last Disaster could do easily thousands. Combined with the late Arts' range, casters had little reason to use basic Arts and non-casters couldn't end up doing damage. Sure, there's the opportunity cost, but Elie is gonna have Thunder Cyclone and Tio is going to have Genesis Flood almost assuredly regardless, and since you're gonna be giving then EP 3 and EP Cut 3 already, you may as well push them over the edge.
The natural issue with that is that it costs a lot of EP, but lategame, physical attacks were about as useful as they were in FC, so at least one party is always going to have some free time. I ran Lloyd/Tio/Estelle/Joshua, and after our requisite Chrono Drives (and Calamity Claw if the enemy could be slowed, which is silly because tough enemies never can be EXCEPT THE FINAL BOSS SOMEHOW), and maybe Fortuna or Holy Breath if they're bored, Lloyd and Estelle don't really have anything better to do than through EP Charges at people. I was excited when I saw Estelle had basically the same attack as Lloyd and Randy--finally, no more is she a utility as she can BEAT PEOPLE WITH A STICK like she's always meant to--and then I realized she couldn't do anything with it besides S-Crafts. Fights ended up being Avalon Gate/Last Disaster spam without much nuance while half the party looked around for something to do. For the final boss, my team had always +50% Spd, +50% ATF/ADF and usually +25% or +50% Attack because what else were they going to do? There also didn't seem to be any way to debuff an enemy's stats besides speed and move consistently, which was weird.
And most importantly, Elie could only get up to 75% Evade. Unfair.

The music was consistently good if not excellent. I think I enjoyed a higher proportion of songs in this than the other games, but none knocked my socks off (at least none I didn't know already). I guess that's an opportunity for Evo.

I think I ended up with 357 DP, and I have no idea where I could've missed any. I'm looking through a sidequest guide and it looks like I got max DP on all of those, and I don't remember any obvious locations in main quests where I could've dropped any. I always answered questions correctly and never lost any fights. I guess a lot of nonsense added up.

uhhh I think that's it. Tentative final ranking:

SC > 3rd > Zero > FC >> CS1 = CS2

I of course adore all of TitS so this is pretty good

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CasanovaZelos posted...

Is it not? My encounters with it have been limited to fringe groups and people discussing its flaws. I've never encountered a major work which takes a positive approach outside of Rand's own work. While it's clear these beliefs have influenced modern American conservatism, I doubt there being common awareness about the concept itself among the general population. I'll hear about it a lot in gaming circles, but that's also due to BioShock.

And this is 'semi-obscure' in relation to things like socialism and Nihilism. It's something you won't encounter unless you're specifically looking into related matters. The use of 'obscure' here is more in the sense of people knowing the term but few having invested the time to learn what it actually represents.

Ayn Rand is explicitly talked about by those conservatives and Libertarians pretty often, not just an implicit foundation of their political philosophies. Like, Rand Paul, who is one of the better known politicians, is literally named after her. In some schools her books are even taught, sadly.

In fact, objectivism so permeates American libertarianism I'd argue the opposite of your last point. People are widely de facto familiar with what her philosophy represents, despite not always necessarily knowing the name for it. Bioshock Infinite doesn't say it's about "objectivism", but the players largely understand what's it's criticizing. I think people have a better grasp on it in general than nihilism, which would be a philosophy people have heard of but don't really understand

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