Lurker > NBIceman

Yes

There are better Trails characters, but she's still great.

Freezington Division
Zebstrika/Excadrill
Shedinja/Meowscarada
Poliwhirl/Furret
Ho-oh/Latias

I would highly recommend TCG2 for anybody who enjoyed the first one. Kind of just more of the same but better in every way IMO. Translation is easy to find.

Totodile/Articuno
Slowking/Honchkrow
Skarmory/Wailord
Crocalor/Geodude

That first match is a bit of a bummer. I really like Volcanion.

I was definitely a little worried about Chikorita. Was already pleasantly surprised enough that it got through Round 1.

Nidoking/Ninetales
Togekiss/Kilowattrel
Murkrow/Roserade
Koffing/Emolga

I definitely second the Epica/Black Halo recommendation, although I also like Haven quite a bit. I think someone may have nominated Liar Liar (Wasteland Monarchy) for one of these topics at some point?

Slowpoke > Politoed > Corvisquire > Wooloo

But the gap between the latter two is bigger than with the former, so I went Politoed/Corvisquire.

Incubated. And then raised, plucked, beheaded, cut up, put onto a grill, and then put onto a bun.

Damn, it's gonna take a while. Scrambled.

+3 Battle Chasers: Nightwar
+2 Sea of Stars
+1 Chained Echoes

When I think CT, I think of its battle system first. 3 characters with a pretty big collection of cool abilities. Battle Chasers is probably an odd choice, but it's got my favorite combat that fits that bill. The other choices are much less weird since they wear their obvious CT inspiration on their sleeves in pretty much every regard.

Nominate:
Cuphead
Classic Mega Man
Celeste

Yeah, page 1 was in fact included in my plans not to look at the manual. Thanks, folks!

I don't blame you for not trying to dig too deep into None of Them Knew. Even I haven't bothered engaging with that song much beyond the surface level, and I usually love doing that with music.

Also, just realized I never commented on Carry On Wayward Son going out - it's funny to hear it was your favorite song once, because it's been my favorite song for many years now. Couldn't believe I hadn't nominated it before now. Certainly can't take issue with the reasons you gave for it falling in your esteem, though. I seem to have a knock for getting songs like that into those topics, as I remember Kamelot's Somewhere in Time being one of my first outs in one of the earlier topics because you said you'd just overplayed it in times past.

CJones posted...

My primary complaint about Charcoal Grace is the same complaint I had with In Contact, and it has nothing to do with the songwriting. They both have terrible mixing, with Charcoal Grace being the worse of the two. The instruments are way WAY too loud relative to the vocals.

I popped CG back in my CD player today and listened to it on the way back home, and I was immediately reminded of why I had stopped listening to it. In order for me to have the slightest idea what Jim Grey was singing, I had to turn the volume up to the point that it actually hurt my ears. Hell, half the time, I couldn't even tell what note he was singing, let alone what lyrics.

Bloom and Rise Radiant didn't have this problem at all. In fact, Rise Radiant is one of the best produced albums I've ever heard, so I don't understand what happened with Charcoal Grace.

I always find takes like this interesting, because I feel like I'm uncommonly uncaring about mixing on albums. I know it was a big common complaint with Diablo Swing Orchestra's last album too, and it's just something that never bothers me at all. I notice it to a certain extent, for sure, and I certainly love Jim Grey's voice enough that I'd love his vocals to be a little louder on some songs, but it just never seems to be a big problem for me.

I also don't feel like it's a consistent issue on Charcoal Grace anyway, I guess. Some songs, definitely, but not even a majority of them IMO.

Rotom/Lugia
Virizion/Kabuto
Chikorita/Butterfree
Politoed/Corvisquire

Domino number one.

I've been of the opinion for a while that Mitchell is probably staying, and I'm getting progressively more confident in that.

Got a physical copy of Tunic and there's a full manual in the case along with what looks like a map. But a big part of the game is that the manual pages are just out in the world and you have to discover them, correct? Want to make sure I'm getting the full intended experience here, so I'm assuming I should just ignore all that stuff.

LeonhartFour posted...

O'Charley's rolls are the best, but Texas Roadhouse is the closest thing to them on this poll.

Ah, yeah, I've had O'Charley's a handful of times and their bread is great. I think I'd still lean Roadhouse, though, gun to my head.

Texas Roadhouse is being depressingly underrated so far, come on people.

Pay your rent, Britta.

Staraptor/Espeon
Bronzong/Chesnaught
Jirachi/Pumpkaboo
Zoroark/Kadabra

Birth By Sleep is the worst game in the series, so no.

Emeraldegg posted...

Like, to her face? That's pretty brutal lol

My MIL herself was leading the charge - it wasn't, like, unprompted criticism. She prefaced the meal with "I tried to make these, but I definitely think you'd be able to tell that they didn't come from Red Lobster even if I didn't say anything." And then she was the first to say that they weren't what she'd hoped.

I've never eaten at a Red Lobster, but my mother-in-law made some imitation cheddar biscuits once that I thought were pretty solid but were universally decried by everyone else present to not be nearly as good as the real thing.

So I guess that's a bummer.

Typhlosion/Meowth
Skeledirge/Starmie
Luxio/Nidoran
Chien-Pao/Quilava

Second match hurts, because I really like Swadloon.

Indiana
Pretty big gap
Minnesota
Enormous gap
Boston
Dallas

... would be my rooting interests. I'd love to see the big young team upset and these Pacers are pretty likeable. Minnesota's a weird one because I don't really like Edwards very much, but I've always been a KAT fan and would love seeing Conley finally win a ring.

There are basically no scenarios in which I would pull for a Boston sports team, but dammit, a Celtics/Mavs final would get me there.

Underleveled posted...

KH1 is still good if you're playing the remix on modern hardware. The original PS2 version is ass now.

Nominate Sesame Street songs

I think the only real issue with the original PS2 KH is unskippable cutscenes, but honestly that's a big enough problem that I'd agree with this take anyway.

Luxray > Shinx > Luxio

Mew/Gyarados
Rapidash/Trevenant
Gligar/Farfetch'd
Greavard/Pelipper

Charizard/Garchomp
Gallade/Absol
Pyroar/Shinx
Braviary/Zangoose

_stingers_ posted...

Elie clears tio any day sorry

Agreed.

Also really like the romance with Lloyd, honestly, though I'm sure that's a hot take.

Dragonite/Marowak
Dewott/Yanmega
Ludicolo/Abra
abstain

Don't like anything in that last match.

Secretly the best FF.

Some sort of nomination system might help, too, if it wouldn't be too much of a headache to keep up with.

I'll say it instead - Zin too low. One of those understated JRPG characters who definitely feels overshadowed, but works really well as a quiet, grounding presence in the party that's always good to have around.

Flygon/Squirtle
Fennekin/Froslass
Sprigatito/Omastar
Pichu/Marshtomp

Very easy day, although I do like Bellibolt.

I would like this a lot. Would vote where I feel like I have something to add, though my gaming library is definitely not as expansive as many folks' on this board.

As the Graves nominator from the first topic, I'm glad that it's had some staying power for you! Probably a top 10 song of all time for me, and In Contact a top 10 album.

For what it's worth, I'd put Charcoal Grace as C-Horse's second-best album after the aforementioned In Contact, and one of the best albums from any band over the last two or three years, but Golem is my least favorite track from it. The rest of the album, in particular the title suite, is the band at its best and is much more Graves-like. So I'd definitely recommend checking it out if you're wanting to hear more of them.

A word of caution, though - if Graves overwhelmed you emotionally (which I totally understand, because it's intentionally a very emotionally charged song), you might have a similar experience with the Charcoal Grace suite. There's some fairly heavy themes at work there, and though I don't want to say too much, they're not entirely dissimilar from some of the stuff from your past that you mentioned in the Duckman writeup.

Anyway, C-Horse album ranking? C-Horse album ranking.

In Contact > Charcoal Grace > The Tide, the Thief & River's End > Bloom > Rise Radiant > Moments from Ephemeral City

I can do a GSC writeup.

If y'all hated my Mega Man writeups from the last one, now's your chance to stop me.

The fact that there are people reading this list who are in the middle of CS2 are making me feel bad about spoilers but I did say "reader beware."

Yeah, please don't worry about it - I've been accidentally spoiled on enough stuff in this series that I'm not super gung-ho about avoiding them these days. Otherwise I wouldn't be reading the topic, as you said.

Richard is a top 10 Trails character imhotbqh.

Hell yeah, down with Paradox Pokemon.

This conversation is bumming me out as someone finding Sara one of the better parts of CS2 currently.

Lapras/Alakazam
Piplup/Liligant
Larvitar/Gigalith
Maractus/Delphox

Last match is a thinker. Maractus is the only one I like, but Delphox is the pits. Tough call.

I've always been a KAT fan but I do think it's fair to question whether it's a good idea to still have him on the Wolves next year. Even with Conley getting cheaper, the extensions for Ant and McDaniels kicking in are going to make that team expensive.

And I still think Reid will have an argument to be a better player per dollar on his next contract. It's not like he's going to be getting $30m a year.

Thievul/Mudsdale
Sandile/Kingambit
Falinks/Weavile
Houndstone/Dhelmise

Kind of a low-quality day IMO.

Mega_Mana posted...

Bloom

This is the correct answer.

No faith in Thompson there?

You think the Rockets would want Topic? I like him a lot, but that's a weird fit with their core, I think.

Sarr is going in the top 3 for sure and I'll be shocked if Risacher falls past 5.

Pretty good outcome for the Spurs. I'm unconfident enough in the Raptors for the next couple years that I'm glad the pick went ahead and conveyed.

Would've been nice to pick ahead of the Wizards, since I think there might be some overlap between the players they're looking at, but I'm not as worried about the Hawks or Rockets from that perspective. Happy with it.

Sorry to Detroit fans, though.

Platforming, puzzles, and Metroidvania? I know nothing about this game - any similarity to La-Mulana?

Growlithe/Tyrantrum
Sirfetch'd/Empoleon
Hitmontop/Cetoddle
Gogoat/Regice

M1: Two likes vs two dislikes.
M2: Same thing, although Floette's okay I guess.
M3: Really tough, two mons I love in Hitmontop and Xatu both paired with ones I like. Good match.
M4: Gogoat carries.