Lurker > SeabassDebeste

well i just talked to edea again and she gave no clues, only said to help again if ultimecia possesses her again

cid just says they'll be sailing the world

i did discover quite a vast amount of ocean

also went to shumi village and built a sculpture of laguna for the power of friendship... plus a phoenix pinion. and $5000 for 14 ultima.
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

MrSmartGuy posted...

Honestly, feel free to look up all the Perceives in this game from now on. There's an incredibly notoriously awful one in a later case, but really, they're all just terrible and only serve to frustrate you. I don't think I've come across a single person who was glad the Perceive mechanic was added to the series.

yup!

colliding posted...

I actually kind of dig perceive. The "logic" behind it sucks ("oh my god, you scratched your hand! you're hiding something" is never going to hold up in any court of law, fictional or not) but I think it's a fun mechanic. I like the idea of each of the "big three" having their own stupid minigame. It's better than mood matrix.

You are right that the "notoriously awful" one is in fact, terrible.

i do think it's a lot better in AA5 when it leaves the courtroom
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

weirdly i've just started watching bones, like 2 days ago. i had no idea david boreanaz voiced squall. i might have heard the name before, but not before i actually watched buffy the vampire slayer.

kingdom hearts, presumably?

pjbasis posted...

It doesn't sound that bad, but I wish they wouldn't try to imitate the very high pitches of japanese VAs.

my hero academia feels
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

Leonhart4 posted...

it also totally explains why Irvine couldn't take the shot because he's the only one who remembers

I did think of that, just forgot to note it! That was probably the only detail that clicked for me about the orphanage scene.
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

yeah i mean i don't doubt that it "fits," but none of it "hits" for me. edea is a character that i was told to care about literally right before i actually fought her, and cid has shown pretty much no reason i should care about her either
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

yeah i've heard ultimecia comes out of nowhere so i believe her. also this game has pointedly not killed a lot of people so it clearly is interested in redeeming matron

edea said to look for the white seed ship i thought. but i'll go back again. i've checked deling, dollet, winhill, and balamb so far...
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

to be fair i think the games i've played without voice acting quite easily outnumber those i've played with voice acting

anyway i ran around the world map for an hour and got bored not knowing what to do
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

wonder if we're gonna hear any more about the origins of seed

time to look for ellone, which i have no clues about
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

which GF should i teach spd-J? i'm tempted to give it to queztlcoatl, who's permanently on squall. save the other two (pandemona and cerberus) for other battles.

really love this juxtaposition of narrative with squall's inner monologue. i'm sick of rinoa as a damsel in distress (again?) but i like that squall's worries about her override the (frankly, kinda ridiculous!) plot exposition
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

encountered the slappers lmao they are unique! battle seems pedestrian tho
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

MartinFF7 posted...

Spd-J Scroll

You'll have some GFs that learn Spd-J naturally (he's one) but it's another one. Actually I don't remember if there are 3 GFs that have that or not, but still. No better junction ability... other than St-J Def x4 I guess. Memory has it being the most game-breaking speed plus ability other than the Auto Haste + Auto Regen combo in FF9.

will check as soon as i start up the game again. does the scroll get used on a GF or on a character?

i often seem to blow a speed advantage anyway, navigating the initial menu so i haven't prioritized learning spd-J for anyone. have had that option though.

pjbasis posted...

Woo!

The game continues to be divisive about all sorts of stuff so it'll be interesting to see where you land as a whole.

i'm already very divided on ff8 as a whole!

Leonhart4 posted...

Congrats on finishing disc 2!

Hope you got Alexander from Edea!

absolutely did draw on edea! looking forward to trying out the new toy.

The Seifer/Edea fight at the end of disc 2 is one of my favorite fights in the series in terms of atmosphere. It's so good.

my fav phase of this was seifer's second wind. there's just something about punching bags...

MartinFF7 posted...

This was my "spoiler" message earlier on the page, it's a convenience of the script that they can have that conversation because there's no indication beforehand that Squall and company remember their past, like Seifer has just conveniently also remembered.

So I like to picture that same scene happening without the Trabia scene having happened and how utterly awkward it'd be, lol.

seifer's devotion to the sorceress was already kinda incomprehensible - his regaining his memory at least explains it. i actually think the audience might wonder about it, but squall would just be squall and say "stop saying nonsense! let's fight!" or something

going forward, we should finally get some real answers on what seed/garden is about
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

MartinFF7 posted...

Did you mug Cerberus

....or do you even have Mug at this point, I forget what you were prioritizing on Diablos. I'd usually just go for Enc-None so I never really experience the random battles in the Garden. Though last time I didn't and I forgot all about the random battle enemy on the skating rink, lol

Ah, what a great part of the game.

I prioritized Mug, which took forever. I forget if I successfully mugged Cerberus in the final playthrough. Obviously did in the one where Rinoa got killed superfast. What's the item so I can check?
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

Just wrapped disc 2. I don't remember any random encounter in the ice area, so no comment there. Is it a missable item that requires me to replay it? Or is it just something funny I can glance at?

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I really disliked the orphanage sequence. After that, I also had no idea where I was supposed to go exactly, but eventually I ran into Galbadia Garden.

What the hell is this Zell/Rinoa ring subplot. The ring has never been mentioned before this, but it's suddenly meaningful. Is Zell shipping Squall and Rinoa? Or is he jealous of Squall and hoping to win Rinoa's heart himself? Either way it feels like it comes out of nowhere and has zero space to breathe, since Rinoa immediately becomes damsel in distress and Zell is utterly incapable of even trying to rescue her. Bleh.

That aside, the sense of action here is phenomenal. Seifer sneering as he deploys troops; the different waves that fly from Galbadia to Balamb; the sense of resolve and desperation that overcomes Balamb. Everyone trusts Squall implicitly - whether this is earned or not is debatable, but he does wind up justifying it. But for all Squall's defense tactics, Balamb Garden can't hold the line, so it's time for an all out attack. The speech he gives before they ram Galbadia for good is excellent. And naturally, since he's the hero, he can't possibly abandon one kid - and so he gets trapped into an unwinnable fight with a mecha.

At first I was exasperated by the robot punching, but when I figured it out, it was actually really cool... from a cinematic perspective. Love the swooping beautiful scenery as we soar above the water and the Gardens. The only problem is that the controls really suck, as FF minigames are wont to do. I wind up dying a few times only getting a sliver of damage onto the enemy combatant. But when I actually figure out the timing to do the doomstrike counterattack, I wind up killing him in two hits... leaving a ton of awkward remaining time as we soar around.

The disconnect between Rinoa's portrayal as a damsel in distress and her actual usefulness continues; she's clearly the second-strongest character after Squall for me, and it would be great if she weren't always the one we had to rescue. That said, the rescue is a swashbucklin' great cutscene. But when we land on solid ground, for ten seconds we change from an adventure movie to something out of Children of Men - a long pan across carnage as one Garden fights another in bloody combat. It's utter mayhem, and we need to sprint across the entire battlefield to begin the invasion. It might be the definitive shot of the game so far.

It's utterly separate from the gameplay itself, but Squall has several times now repeated that they have to see Edea and Seifer as the enemy. It's becoming increasingly clear that he's saying it to convince himself. It's flagrantly clear that being a mercenary doesn't mean being a good person. The game is aware of this but hasn't delved deep yet; despite Squall's misgivings, we still continue to press forward. Maybe at some point peace will win, but not yet.

I love Galbadia Garden's layout as a dungeon. It's got a clean aesthetic and lots of loops and backtracking. But it's got a save point in the center, and for all its backtracking, each time you empty out a wing, you're given a faster route back. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it does feel like FFVIII's cleanest dungeon design yet; it's the only one where I manage to develop a good sense of space and flow. I also appreciate Raijin and Fujin, who have dropped enemy status and again just want us to bring Seifer back to the light side of the Force. The enemies here are a mixed bag of strong and weak, but almost all of them have good stuff to Draw. I give Rinoa the job of casting Doom on them and Mugging them, then farm them with Selphie/Squall/Rinoa-post-Doom until they expire.

Or at least I keep doing that until I reach Cerberus. The first time through, he silences everyone, and I have no Item equipped. This prevents me from curing myself or Dispelling his Triple, so he quickly wipes me out as I'm doing puny damage with regular attacks, and soon he wipes me out.

Back to the junctioning board. I strip Selphie of her Draw command and instead slap on the Treatment ability. When we return, I immediately use Treatment any time someone is Silenced. I also discover the power of the Double spell, which I'd never even tried before; I save my Lv3 magic but hit Cerberus hard with 3x Double Lv2 spells after doing 3x Shell. I Dispel him whenever he Triples up and use Double-Cure2 whenever I'm feeling low, and eventually down he goes. Sadly I'm not able to farm him much; only a single draw on Quake and a few on Double.

One of the enemies I'm able to farm holds Silence. After reviewing, only one character has the ability to junction to ST-Defense: Selphie. She also happens to have Brothers, which gives her the highest HP. So I give her 100% Silence junctioned to ST-Defense. I'LL NEVER AGAIN BE SILENCED, SUCKERS.

After collecting the final keys, we go up and see Seifer and Edea, with yet another convenient save point right there. Thank you game. Seifer's up first, and he alludes to our past and how we can't fight Matron. Squall repeats his mantra that his enemy is a monster; then we dive in. Seifer's not too hard since I've junctioned the hell out of everyone, particularly with a fairly high Dispel score so his magic attacks don't hurt that much. I begin with Cerberus, which I realize gives everyone Triple. Since Seifer has no annoying status effects, we just hammer him with Lv2 and Lv3 spells, Tripled, with the occasional Cure2 to maintain dominance. Without even casting Protect or Shell, down goes Seifer.

We're very politely given the chance to re-junction and heal before we face Edea, who's run away, calling Seifer worthless... and Seifer pops in again. This dude has Vegeta-level will - he's literally on his knees as we fight. Again, I just cast Cerberus, and he's got even less HP this time, so I don't waste time casting protective spells and hammer him quickly into submission. The Scan tells me he's improved his skills, so I don't hold back and hit him with some Lv3 spells too.

Of course, that was with the expectation a battle would end, so that Shell wouldn't carry over. Whoops! It doesn't. Edea picks up right where Seifer left off. Problem: She immediately kills Selphie. What the hell. Fortunately Squall's got six Full-life (which I forget where I drew from), and we revive her quickly. Rinoa's doing a bit of Triple-casting Shell, Lv3 magic, and the like, but soon Edea begins using Silence and Slow and Dispel and Reflect. I start feeling pretty bad about de-junctioning the Treatment option when I realize Carbuncle doesn't cure status ailments! It's also beginning to waste my time as I scramble to make sure characters can use all their abilities.

During this time, while Rinoa's silenced, she Mugs away some sort of Crown from Edea. Cool?

In the end, Cerberus is killed in a single hit, so after the first few sets of Triple-Ice3s, I'm reduced to single-strikes. Squall of course is useful here, as his single strike is comparable to a Lv3 spell. Edea moves away from casting Reflect (and alleviates my reliance on Dispel); however, she picks up a nasty habit of casting Death. Often. This is the only thing that kills me. It's the worst when it hits Squall; he's the only one with Full-life and the only one with items, but I do have Life on other characters, so when he goes down I'm able to bring him back (and desperately Shell/Cure3 him).

Eventually I finally do a scan and see she's down to only 2000ish health, so I go all out with attacks, and down she goes.
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

the bigger issue last time was the silence! but yeah i dispelled, then took it down

time to check out why cerebus is good
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

ffviii has me really enjoying the arc of the story, but a lot of the character interactions and dialogue are cringe-y

i just spent 30 min assigning GFs so everyone could have coverage on the five stats. i've been farming a lot of rando encounters with draw at galbadia garden

despite my best efforts i was quickly eviscerated by cerebus after it silenced me. next time i'll junction treatment and maybe someone with item as well.
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

playing now

so how am i supposed to beat that mecha that hits me whenever i try to escape
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

lmaoooo after dale makes a bunch of thinly veiled antisemitic remarks about hank's mom's jewish boyfriend, they go to hank's dad

kasner?! ... happy hannukah!
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

Llarian posted...

Case 4-2 - Turnabout Corner

hmm
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

really not into S1 zuko, especially the blue spirit

boiling rock is great stuff though. i associate the two episodes together. don't know that i'd be able to rank either as high, separately.

i do love the show's takes on generic "baddies," like the sensitive prisoner (or even the prisoners in avatar day encouraging aang)
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

one trope i become increasingly tired of is "i passed out/was unconscious" for witnesses
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

"Now equal rights is good and all until some man loses his job!"

"Yeah! And we're used to getting favors, so it's even worse when we lose them!"
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

Cavedweller2000 posted...

I believe they all have a go at him AFTER Zell tries and fails to reach her.

irvine and zell (un my rinoa party) start complaining the moment they see squall (who chooses garden first).squall tells zell to do it himself.
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

oh, and the game is building this up to be the finale pretty well!
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

about to storm galbadia garden and

1. i love the music and cinematics of this sequence with the paratroopers.

2. paratroopers are annoying enemies! but good to have tougher random encounters.

3. doom is fun to cast but i should probably de-equip it for the upcoming bosses

4. i hate that rinoa immediately became a damsel in distress and that zell's only move was to run for squall. and that characters then gave squall shit for prioritizing the entire garden over rinoa alone.

5. then i got killed outside of battle by a robot. what the hell...
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

Grand Kirby posted...

I really like these writeups, so thank you for doing them. Normally it makes want to get interested in trying out new games but for obvious reasons it's going to be a while before that happens...

Thanks! I only discuss 'cause I love doing it. And also because like you, I'm desperate for gaming...

One thing I've noticed is there are a fair amount of games I really enjoy that aren't on here, so I wonder if you've never played them or if you just don't like them that much. I haven't played a large amount of board games so I could understand if if we just have different libraries and tastes

I actually ranked pretty much every game here that I've played on more than one separate occasion; the games at the bottom of the list I pretty much actively dislike! So the ones you've listed, I haven't played more than once, but I can opine.

Haven't even heard of: Push, Impact
Push looks a little like Uno? But it sounds less punishing and more push-your-luck-y, so I might compare it more to Point Salad - which I love.

Impact sounds pretty awesome. I do enjoy dexterity games - though I think in general I prefer real-time to dexterity as a chaotic mechanic. How do you find the intersection between dice randomness and dexterity in this game?

Played once: Lords of Waterdeep
So this probably wasn't optimal, because I played it at a meetup with six people and at least one or two people I didn't particularly like. We played with the Scoundrels expansion, which from what I hear is pretty mandatory. Among worker placement games, I don't think it did anything to distinguish itself - it was mainly collecting cubes? I believe the Scoundrels mainly added some Intrigue card draw, which I found mostly a distraction rather than additive.

I didn't find a ton in the game to love. That said, circumstances are what lead to the enjoyment of a game. I kind of suspect that it's way better at three or four players with everyone taking snappy turns - there are very few games that I don't enjoy more played that way!

Heard of, but haven't played: Villainous
As mentioned before, the theme is a negative to me. I actually do like the majority of Disney movies I've seen, especially their songs. From what I hear about this, it's probably not up my alley, but

Played several times: Spyfall
So this is a little weird, because I've never played the physical game of Spyfall (which I have to imagine is cumbersome). However, I've played it plenty online. I've enjoyed it for sure - like in Dixit and Decrypto, I enjoy the "communicate something, but not everything" incentive, which essentially forces you to hope that people will get what you're saying... but not the wrong people. One of my issues with Spyfall that makes me reticent to suggest it all the time is the lack of structure. It does rely heavily on its players to give it even a modicum of fun. But even well-intentioned players can be kind of awkward accusing one another, and with only one spy, it can often just be luck if you happen to get asked a question too early, and you're basically outed. And then there are the games that feel like they go on a little too long, when the spy is asked a question last and has blended in already.

So I guess it's a weird thing to criticize for a 5-8 minute game, but I wish Spyfall had more of a real "story-arc" that developed. The best social deduction games IMO do have that. Spyfall often feels like "'kay, lucked by" or "oops, got caught too soon." When it fires and there's genuine confusion and close calls, though, it can feel really clever. (It can also just lead to a good amount of laughs when people ask bizarre questions! "What's that smell?")

If you want to hear my opinions on them I'd be happy to expound on them further when I have time.

Of course, whenever you can! I'd also be interested to see which of the games that did make it on my list are your favs.
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

cyko posted...

I bring it up because Twilight Imperium 4th edition really is another great epic space game that you also might love - especially if you prefer games that have a lot of politicking and backstabbing.

I actually am not big on the politicking and backstabbing! I like AGOT: The Board Game a lot, but in general, I like to play my strategy games as quickly as possible. My brain will usually translate long negotiations, especially among people who are not me, into downtime/boredom/bickering. That said, given that it can play with only 4, maybe there's a chance....... some day.

I am not usually a very creative person when it comes to customizing games, but I took this a step further and created a full set of custom Super Smash Bros. Epic Duels. I took time to customize each deck to the character's personality and playstyle. I am obviously biased towards my own decks, but after hosting several events at Gencon over the years, I have heard nothing but positive feedback about Super Smash Bros Epic Duels. Undoubtedly, those positive experiences have elevated my personal opinion of Epic Duels.

Recently, Rob Daviau remade the Epic Duels system into a game called Unmatched. The characters aren't nearly as interesting as Star Wars (or Smash Bros!!), but the game has gotten great reviews and seems to be better balanced than the original Epic Duels. I haven't tried it yet, because the price seems crazy high ($40 for 4 characters) compared to what you got with Epic Duels ($50 for 12 characters...), but I would like to try it.

Love the enthusiasm/initiative here. Inspired both by the YGO card game and the anime, my friends and I once had the idea to make some sort of card game where you could summon monsters, but they'd appear in a labyrinth you'd have to navigate. It didn't come to fruition so I'm envious you managed to get so much out of a system!

In general I tend to stay away from owning IPs outside of ASOIAF. So the idea of Unmatched is a good one to me!

As I mentioned under Puerto Rico, New Frontiers is basically a refined version of Puerto Rico with the symbology and space theme of Race/ Roll For the Galaxy. I think I might actually like it a bit more than Pueto Rico because of how it's streamlined, but I have only played it three times (which is actually really good for me considering I have only had it for about a year!). There are enough minor differences where it's not just a rethemed version of Puerto Rico, but I think I need to play it a few more times to see which I prefer.

For example in New Frontiers, you can adjust the player order with one of the 7 actions, which I prefer to the player order always staying the same in PR. But in PR, I think I prefer loading up your goods on the trade ships that each player shares instead of producing and consuming on your own board in NF. But then again, in NF, I really like how everyone selects a different starting board with a different special ability.... and NF is very color-blind friendly!! So, yeah, they are very similar, but I am still a little torn on which one I prefer.

I've been reading a little more on Race/Roll/PR/NF. I suspect that Race is by far the best option among all these for a 2P game. The only issue is whether my partner is going to have the interest/patience to play Race more than once after a reluctant learning game. A few weeks ago I got my decade-old copy of Backgammon to the table and she hated it. Didn't even play more than one game. Earlier, I'd thought about Innovation as well for a 2P game - I've played it twice and not liked it, but it seems ideal for a game to play over and over and get better at.

I imagine PR is the best-looking on a table/has the aesthetic I like the most (though with an unfortunate theme). Not big on space themes or aesthetics in most of my board games. Roll I find to be an ugly game... but it has dice. And it sounds like NF might be less punishing than PR with no slaves, but otherwise the sell isn't clear.

So while the pandemic goes on and I desperately await more plays on several of my games, I'm staying away from all of them. Alas.

I can't quite put my finger on why I love this game so much, but it's a very well polished, very strategic worker placement game where every action feels important. It's definitely in the same genre as Agricola, but different enough for me to enjoy both. RR definitely rewards skilled players, though, so it can be a little tough for newer players to break into. The German Railroad boards really open up the game without making it too much more complicated. It is out of print, but if you want to try it online, you can play it at www.yucata.de or www.boardgamearena.com

Noted re: online play! A person in my meetup's discord complained the other day about Russian Railroads feeling soulless. I laughed because the game is called Russian Railroads. Like, what are you expecting?!

. The actual card game that you play in the 3 tournaments (over the course of the full game) by itself isn't that exciting and can be determined completely randomly by the cards you collect in the planning phase. But the game is about so much more than the tournaments. Getting overall points for Collecting cards, selling cards, throwing actual wads of cash around and even getting rewarded for the friends you make along the way!

So, I've twice been into a CCG/LCG: YGO waaaay back when, and AGOT:TCG in recent years. In neither case did I particularly enjoy the process of buying cards; storing cards was an issue for me, and I fell behind, and I have anxiety spending that much money regularly. I did love the friends I made along the way, but I was much more into playing the games and the meta compared to acquiring cards. Maybe that explains why it didn't hit for me!

I am surprised you don't have more 2P games, especially during this pandemic.

Ah, alas, yeah. Haven't gamed much at all. I might make a list of games I've acquired/played more since making this list, but my 2P household gaming this entire pandemic has consisted of one play of Backgammon, a few plays of Watergate, and one play of Castles of Burgundy. We're talking about getting Viticulture back to the table though.

Otherwise, I have never played it, but I hear Battlestar Galactica takes everything Shadows Over Camelot did and makes it better.

BSG is a case where I prefer the SOC theme (I'm an Avalon fan, after all!) and I played BSG waaaaay too early on, when at least two of us had never played a two-hour game voluntarily (and it took three). I have a dream about getting five players to play it and learn it well. I do think based on what you're saying that SOC is definitely a try-not-buy, but this actually does make me want to try it even more.

Random anecdote - at Origins a year ago, I got to play a game I'd researched for a long time early on - Shadow Hunters. It has some issues, but in the end, I was still pretty interested and it didn't seem broken to me. It's out of print, so copies go for like $150-$200, and I saw one appear on my local marketplace at $20... I was talked out of it and regretted my choice within a few hours, but it was gone by then. :(
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

evidently this is the final battle against the sorceress coming up. doesn't feel like i'm particularly close to the game ending though. squall definitely has a mind for tactics here.

zell and rinoa MIA. so i'm dragging along selphie and quistis for now, my two lowest leveled options (14; squall is around 21). the game tells me not to junction just yet.
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

"this is not camelot and you are not jason alexander" lmaoooo

two great episodes in a row - bobby running away with khan jr and hank to sell to a bostonian
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

bobby, al yankovic blew his brains out in the late 80s after no one bought his records!
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

i'd been doing 50+ reps of pullups per day, just whenever i walked by the kitchen

now i feel like i have pretty significant nerve pain at my elbow, ugh

doing bulgarian split squats bodyweight today, and good god it is difficult. quads have atrophied a ton and my single-leg balance and strength have always been subpar
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

MrSmartGuy posted...

The Eldoon hat reveal is legitimately my favorite part of the entire game. All downhill from here, unfortunately.

hey now there's a cool part a few cases from now!
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

thought you had finished investigation for sure. seems to be taking you a while!
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Ozai was the king of the world, Azula was a glorified governor.

I mean yes, but as long as Ozai was alive Azula was never going to become king of the world. She didn't actually lose anything.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

The other part of the episode, arguably the more interesting one, is in the present, where Zuko tries to survive while a EK family gives him shelter. There is an interesting relationship between Zuko and the kid from the family, who looks up to him because his older brother died in the war. Zuko teaches him how to use double swords and protects his family. But eventually, he has to bend fire in order to succesfully win the fight, and he instantly becomes the enemy of the villagers. And not even the kid accepts him. Poor Zuko. War is rough.

I don't sympathize with Zuko this episode at all. He literally robbed a family who showed him shelter just a few episodes prior to this.

The Headband is neat. I wouldn't have it this high up but I liked it more than some of the rest of the first half of S3, and almost all of S1. Its look at propaganda does feel increasingly relevant the more you learn about history.
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

i don't like the implication that being fire lord is meaningless

no one ever spells that out, and being fire lord is very clearly not meaningless. there can only be one monarch of the unified kingdom. she's still ozai's heir.
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

it's weird that some stuff is stripped for AA4, like presenting profiles. trials also become less involved by a fair margin.
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

aa4 is rough, but it's not that long. if you can power through it you can get to the good stuff again!
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

the scene just feels drastically undercut by the lack of anyone really caring about losing their memories. if the game is all about destiny reuniting them and the power of friendship - and so far, it definitely does feel that way - then i'd expect them to have a much bigger issue with suddenly finding themselves without their memories

the questions about edea being matron, seed, and garden are interesting, but even that feels undercut by the fact that "matron" and the orphanage were just introduced as a concept

i think the following could make the scene better in hindsight:

- more significant costs of using the GF; perhaps forgetting something that actually happens during the main events of the game
- evidence of time travel affecting the future

among things that weren't stupid plot twists, i'm already dreading what happens to raine in the past. she's not present when we go back, and ellone winds up at the orphanage...

i guess it's time to look for the orphanage now but i have no idea where to go
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

well "we grew up in the same orphanage" was even stupider than it sounds
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

WazzupGenius00 posted...

There are certain episodes where its okay that the ending is Hank was right all along and that is not one of them

That becomes much more frequent in later seasons unfortunately

that's a good summary of the situation, yeah. sorry to hear that it becomes more frequent :(
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

bobby fat-modeling is a roughhh episode
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

cyko posted...

Basically, the game simulates the climax of Star Wars Episode 1 by having you play four different games at the same time. It sounds weird, but all four sub-games interlock together and it works really well. One side plays the Trade Federation (Dark Side) and the other plays Naboo (Light Side). On one map, you have the battle on the plain between the Gungan forces and the droid army, which connects to ---- A 3 tiered palace where you have the attempt by Naboo forces, led by Queen Amidala, to storm the palace and capture the Trade Federation viceroys, which is also connected to - the fight between Darth Maul and the two Jedi Knights on a power reactor map. Off to the side, you also have the space battle where Anakin's starfighter is trying to destroy the Droid Control Ship.

don't have time to respond to quite everything atm, but this sounds amazing. and yeah, stunning that it was a movie tie-in...
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

WazzupGenius00 posted...

Did you draw from Fujin

I did! Pandemona get.

Haven't examined what it does yet!
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

jesus this halloween/christian crazy episode is something
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

Got in an hour-plus. There was a lot of pointless meandering. I strapped in Zell and Rinoa and was confused about how to access Balamb, which is where Xu and Quistis have decided I should go. I wander the Balamb Plain but can't figure out how to get into the town, so then I fly around more and visit several other sites, including a Shumi trading post (I leave right away), the remains of the town that Laguna once guarded (now safe to run around in, but seeing ghosts there), Rinoa's town, and more.

Eventually - and I'm talking like an hour later - I return to Balamb and realize you can walk into that town. Galbadian troops seem to have taken over for the time being. I hadn't realized 'til this moment that this is Zell's hometown. The guard accosts us, and Squall quickly BSes that we're here to deliver intel on Ellone. He also takes some time to poke fun at Zell once we're in Zell's house. Anyway, one set of guards wants us to contact the Commander, but then the guards surrounding the Commander tell us to get the Captain first. The Captain... apparently likes napping a lot.

Well, okay then. We search high and low, discovering nooks we hadn't seen before, and spending our last $5000 on a useless hint. But finally, the smell of fish in Zell's own house (!!!) leads us to Raijin! He's poisoned his own dudes with fish.

Raijin is a rather easy battle once I cast Protect on everyone - he doesn't have any surprise moves, and I beat him without having to heal thanks to the newly junctioned HP boosts. I take him down extremely patiently with Squall attacking, Rinoa using Ice magic, and Zell attacking since I haven't equipped Magic to him. After I get tired of it, I hit Raijin with Leviathan via Zell - awesome animation - which finishes him.

It's a bit more of a surprise when he runs inside to rejoin Fujin for a dual boss battle, with no break. I haphazardly cast Protect on everyone and then go about healing during the battle with Cure2, then go to work with Ice3 spells from Squall and Rinoa and constant Leviathan barrages from Zell. Once Raijin goes down a second time, we focus on Fujin. Rinoa hits her with magic of various strengths, and Zell's focus goes from Leviathan to Diablos. Down goes Fujin.

When we return, Selphie almost immediately reappears and suggests we go to her home Garden. She mentions it's icy there; I'm certain it's the mountainous/snowy area to the north where I'd previously found the Shumi. But that's to come.

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* "Flowers bloom over and over. I wonder if people do the same?"

* I've upgraded Squall's sword. It's now red and fiery. Cooool. I've also attached 96-100 Curaga to everyone's HP. It cost pretty much all my money. But yeah, it's nice. I've also given Rinoa HP+40% which is crazy.

* I also finally got the Card ability in battle to work. I've just learned Mug, so looking forward to giving that skill to someone over Attack. Possibly Squall - he's got the best attack by far. And then I can un-junction Card from Squall and give it to someone less useful.

* I really like Fujin's character design.

* The awesome Fisherman's Horizon theme plays in Laguna/Raine's town. It's a shame the music in Balamb Garden and the world map kinda suck.
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

time seems so scarce! will try tonight, but if not, should be able to get some hours in this weekend
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

2x01 reminds me a lot of 1x01 but almost with reversed roles. this time hank is the one afraid of not being accepted by bobby (for being a poor shot) instead of vice versa. might be the best overall episode since 1x01 too!

it also (combined with the current political climate) made me more interested in shooting a gun
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

season 1 down the hatch. this show really takes extremely barebones plots - in this case, bobby going to a party with girls - and rides them to the point of absurdity. hank winds up bisecting a mannequin head with a table saw. even with context it's bizarre!
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

that scene with zuko and iroh reuniting has to be in my top whatever scenes of the series. so good.
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

Seanchan posted...

I live in a fairly large community with multiple buildings, so there's actually two different fitness centers. Only one of them has a squat/half rack though, so that's the one I use. It's surprisingly well equipped, with an additional incline smith machine, 3 barbells (one is only 25 lbs though), enough plates to generally compensate for 2-3 people, dumbbells up to 50 lbs (the "other" fitness center goes up to 80 lbs), and then your usual assortment of machines and cardio equipment.

jealous! i just moved and my new building has no gym at all

iiaattgg posted...

Tomorrow is my first day with my new power lifting coach!

Today was decent. Things felt a lot better than my last pull day

Weighted pull ups 30x6 20x6 10x6 0x6
Bent over rows 160x10x8x6
Barbell curls 70x12x2 60x12 50x16
Lat raise 30x9 30x7 25x12
Lat pulldow 170x8 150x9 130x10 110x12
Seated cable row 100x3
Face pull 35x10x3
Overhead one arm cable row 50x10x8x6
Rear delt machine 100x12x3
Cable curl 50x15x3
Weighted chins 20x5 20x4 20x3'

that volume is crazzzzzy
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness

love trial day 1
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness