Lurker > pyresword

Magi remains to this day the only show I have dropped after only 1 episode.
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voltch posted...

Time for people to post their fav battle shounen OPs.

Don't really think this one counts as a battle shounen but screw you I'm counting it anyway. (Also my others are a bit questionable anyways so...)


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Not gonna lie if I somehow knew nothing about the show and saw that OP I might have assumed it was a yaoi fantasy show.

Probably not, but the fact that the possibility is even there is a bit strange.
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You probably aren't quite this far in the sphere grid yet but her damage output increases a lot when she gets to Double Cast.
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But I've been too busy playing Utawarerumono.

I did finally finish those games this weekend though so who knows maybe it's time for anime again.
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BK_Sheikah00 posted...

Now I wonder, does being in Zombie status protect you from Mega Death?

Yes this is how it works. This fight is super gimmicky if you're not aware how it works because you have to keep one character with zombie status (and somehow keep them alive) so your party isn't wiped by Mega Death. Also even aside from that gimmick it's still one of the more challenging fights even after you know how it works. Probably not as bad as Seymour Flux but this one gives a lot of people trouble also.

Death Ward might also work regardless. I'm not sure about that, but I do know for sure that Zombie status blocks Mega Death.
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Crap does this mean I'm gonna have to come up with a poll when I'm not even watching anime atm other than MHA and Steins;Gate
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Clannad
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Antarctica
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Just got out of the theater for Maquia. It was all right. The writing was very "Mari Okada", for better and for worse.

Ultimately glad I watched it, but I don't have much to say beyond that.
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Did he ever deny Russian meddling or just collusion? I haven't been keeping careful track.
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I think My Hero Academia has good writing. Also Fullmetal Alchemist, though I'm not sure if that's considered a shounen fighting series or not.

Many people would also say Hunter x Hunter, though I personally would disagree with those people.
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From the New World
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Antarctica

(free)
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From the New World
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My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU
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Clannad
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Antarctica
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Number 2 also one of my favorite characters, though in my case I generally seem to like child characters in JRPG's actually, as long as the writers don't go out of their way to make them obnoxious.

Eleanor is also great and adds a really interesting element to the party dynamic imo. She's also my favorite to use in battle, though I did have to resort to Velvet for a small number of bosses as well as most of the final dungeon.
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Got a bit of ground to cover here but I'm probably just going to go through it quickly. Unmarked Mask of Truth spoilers below:

At the end of Mask of Deception I complained that some of the side characters didn't get enough development for my liking, but I guess that's just because they were saving it all for this game. First there is a Rulutieh-focused involving securing an alliance with Kujyuri, which was quite good. After that there's a short arc in which Vurai comes back, for reasons I still don't totally understand (AKA to fill out the battle quota on the game lol). It allowed Nekone to get some good scenes though, so whatever, and also Vurai's actual death scene was pretty good. There's also a Nosuri arc involving her/Ougi's homeland of Izuruha. This one was solid but ultimately didn't leave too much of an impression on me, which is somewhat ironic considering Tokifusa--one of the central figures--is the general who's literally introduced as being unremarkable at everything (and then is never mentioned again until this arc).

Anyways so that's that. Next arc looks like it's going to be an Atuy arc which I am pretty excited for. Also, it looks like my earlier hunch was right and that Maroro has...uh...seen better days. Yeah...

Other thoughts:
--As I said above I really liked Rulutieh's arc. In this slice-of-life scenes since the beginning of Mask of Truth which I never bothered to discuss in detail, Rulutieh has been going through a bit of an existential crisis after what happens with Haku at the end of Mask of Deception, which was already shooting her up in the character rankings. It was great here seeing her finally able to sort her thoughts together and decide what she wants. Also Shis was a pretty good character, and I liked how she struggled to deal with letting Rulutieh go. (Her fight was a pain in the ass though.)

--Not a lot to comment about the Izuruha stuff. As I said above it was fine.

--One thing about this game I will say is that it does death scenes really well. Inspired by Vurai's and Tokifusa's death scenes from this update, which were both great, but honestly all character deaths have been good (even Dekopompo lol). What's also impressive about that is that it's been a variety of different types of death scene, if that makes sense, and they've also all managed to be very fitting ends for their particular characters.

--Random comment, but I hope the Tuskur characters still have a role to play in the story and that this isn't just going to be Yamatan politics from here on out. That wouldn't be a disaster by any stretch of course, but I do like a lot of the Tuskur folks.
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I gave From the New World a 10 on MAL >.>

It has not really needed me to save it often in this contest though.
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Not going to post at length about this here, but I've spent the last 2 weeks or so playing through the PS4 Utawarerumono games (Mask of Deception/Mask of Truth). They are quite good imo, and I think some people in this topic might like them.

They are technically SRPG's, but I'd only really recommend them to visual novel fans. The text-to-gameplay ratio is quite high, and from a gameplay perspective I don't see much reason to pick this up over other SRPG's. (As a reference point, I don't like SRPG's myself, but it's a small enough factor that I'm still able to enjoy these games)
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My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU
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Clannad
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Antarctica
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bumpo

Probably no update today
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Aw yeah Tales of Berseria. I really loved this game. The main cast is all so good.
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Futaba arc possibly my favorite story arc in any video game. It's so good.
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Solid Snake (Brawl)
Cloud Strife (Smash 4)
Dante (Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne)
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I rewatched Durarara S1 before season 2 came out. Probably going to do the same thing with Chihayafuru before season 3 of that airs also.
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Utena worst major Ikuhara show imo. It's still solid though, and I suppose it is is most famous/well-regarded show.

If this other show is similar to his style though than I might have to check it out (seems the director worked with Ikuhara often?). Would make it the only anime I'm watching this season lol.
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Clannad
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Mask of Truth spoilers below. After this I'm probably going to stop putting entire updates behind spoiler bars, and I'll only use them when explicitly describing major plot events.

Ok so I'm excited about a lot of stuff going on right now, but most of that pales in comparison to the fact that Kuon is freaking back, so if you don't mind I'm going to skip ahead of entire plot arcs for a minute to talk about that.

Loved the scene where Kuon comes back as the princess of Tuskur so much. Aside from Kuon just being generally great, I really like how Haku started actually bringing out/back the Haku persona in order to motivate Anju and shut down Kuon's selfish actions. It's a bit ironic that Kuon starts lecturing Oshtor/Haku here for not relying on his friends, when that's pretty much exactly what she's not doing here, herself. Though I guess Haku is somewhat deserving of that also since he's trying to shoulder a lot of burden here himself, but that's probably a plot point for another day. Also that moment when Kuon finally realizes what's going on with Oshtor/Haku, and that panicked tone enters her voice and the sad vocal song kicks in. So good.

Anyways enough about that scene. In other news there was also a battle at Ennakamuy before all that happened. Dekopompo and Bokoinante are dead, and I'm sure there is one person who mourned their passing. Maybe. Haku and Mikazuchi also did a thing and Mikazuchi figured out that the "real" Oshtor was dead in the process. That scene was also really good and might have been worthy of a similar paragraph to the one I wrote above if there weren't even more important things to talk about in this update.

Also Kuon is back with the group in earnest and got a ton of slice-of-life esque scenes and I couldn't be happier.

Other comments:
--I joked about it above, but there is honestly a part of me that's going to miss hearing the way Dekopompo's voice actor shouts "Bokoinante!!!!" in that adorably pudgy sounding voice. Definitely the character's most important contribution to this narrative

--One character I am absolutely going to miss is the old Maroro, who seems like he's going to be a somewhat fundamentally changed character when he reappears. I didn't like him at first, but he really grew on me over the course of Mask of Deception. If I'm interpreting the various foreshadowing elements here properly it looks like Raiko has something planned for Maroro at this stage, which makes me very anxious.

--Just wanted to mention that I have officially used the Music Player feature to set Koi Yume as the title screen BGM, because that song is great.

--Kuon is still the best
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A Place Further Than the Universe
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Heaven's Feel best Fate story/arc/whatever.
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Wanglicious posted...

how long did Deception take you anyway?

About 25 hours or so while doing zero postgame content. I think I'm slightly on the faster side as far as reading speed through VN's goes though, so it might take you longer. (or shorter if you are also fast. My friend who's into VN's and recommended these games reads through them in like 1/2 to 2/3 the time it takes me sometimes, so...)

Definitely recommend. It's not quite the 10/10 masterpiece that my friend sold it to me as, but Mask of Deception was very good and Mask of Truth has definitely upped the bar since then. (plus I am only like 1/3 through Truth I think? So still a lot of time for it to get better)
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Specifically this is what bothered me:

destroying your country just to spite people who offended you is incredibly dumb and petty.

It's not an incorrect statement, but the implication to me is that it's suggesting that all or a large fraction of people who felt offended by Liberals voted Trump in large part due to this reason.

I admit this is somewhat of a touchy subject for me due to various reasons, so if other people think it's fine and that I'm just trying too hard to read between the lines then I'll back down. Even in that instance though I will point out I'm not the only one out there for whom this is touchy subject and who might leap to that conclusion.
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Ironically I'm now realizing my post is itself guilty of what I was trying to criticize others in this topic for, so my apologies.

This is an interesting case study to me.
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Suprak the Stud posted...

pyresword posted...

Guys you know many Republicans are real people with real reasons for voting in the way they do, right?

This kind of talk isn't any different to me than the kind of dialogue trying to turn all liberals into Antifa boogeymen which you are calling out Red Sox for.

Yeah, duh.

"People like him" isn't all Republicans, nor did I say it was. There are plenty of republicans that don't act like this. Go ahead and point out in my post where I said otherwise so I can correct it while I can still edit, because that isn't what I meant. Thanks so much!

Your post isn't the main post I was responding to, to be fair. (Which was Lasa's and Inviso's)

I do think it's very easy to misinterpret what "people like him" is referring to exactly though. Basically my stance is to just avoid making statements that are dismissive as much as possible, and especially ones that are vague about who they're being dismissive of.
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Guys you know many Republicans are real people with real reasons for voting in the way they do, right?

This kind of talk isn't any different to me than the kind of dialogue trying to turn all liberals into Antifa boogeymen which you are calling out Red Sox for.
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Welp, and just after I was saying how there was nothing concrete in the game to talk about...a lotta stuff happened last night

Also RIP my sleep schedule lol
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Damn the game I'm playing just had a really good song play that I wanted to replace one of my noms with, but I can't find it anywhere on Youtube.
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Yeah I agree with that. It was an accident and I don't actually intentionally spoil myself on stuff. This was just a case where it happened to work out in my favor. (And I never actually replayed Persona 4, surprisingly.)
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The Narrator (Fight Club)

Also general shoutouts to Kotaro Uchikoshi and Ryukishi07 who are really good at playing with this trope and close variants of it.
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Persona 4 spoils

I don't think I would have gotten that. I spoiled myself about 2 or 3 months into the game, but I'd already been pretty suspicious of him for some reason or other anyways, so I doubt it would have been shock. Having it confirmed for sure caused all his conversations to take on this completely different and sinister tone though which was quite entertaining.
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xp1337 posted...

More like I am that desperate for Trails material to consume I can't help but be drawn to it like a moth to flame.

it feels bad

This except it feels good.

I am also someone who doesn't care much about spoilers generally speaking. There are exceptions which is why I do "try" and avoid them, but I'm fine with doing stuff like this because even if I do end up accidentally spoiling myself on something it usually doesn't hurt my experience much.

There's even one case where I'm convinced I enjoyed the game more having been spoiled on a certain plot point, which is Persona 4. (I spoiled myself on the identity of the culprit)
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"Death is lighter than a feather. Duty, heavier than a mountain."

Anyways yeah I've played a bit but I don't have much concrete to say right now. But, Mask of Truth spoilers below:

Anyways, Kuon is revealed to the princess of Tuskur, to the surprise of literally no one. For unclear reasons she decides to do some princess-like things to her friends back in Yamato, which I'm sure is going to work out as expected with absolutely no unintended consequences.

...and honestly most of the rest of the content so far has just been character development stuff to establish the new status quo after the Mask of Deception ending shook things up. And as I said for the last game that's fine, but talking about what's happened is kind of hard. I guess--Kiwru and Ougi have returned; the princess has been healed and has decided to try to take back the throne; and Oshtor's mom has been introduced as a character?

General thoughts:

--Oh man the first hour or so of the game was rough. Giving me painful flashbacks to a certain other jrpg...

--Also I kind of like how the beginning of this game mirrored the beginning of Mask of Deception (and the original, from what I know), with Kuon waking up in the lap of a woman after a long sleep and having forgotten a reasonable chunk of her past. Part of me thought Kuon was actually going to have amnesia for most of the game, which would have been...something. Didn't end up happening of course.

--Really like the direction this game seems to be going, which is exploring the notion that as the characters fulfill their obligations to society they end up destroying some of themselves in the process. Hard for me to comment on any real specifics but yeah this is looking to be good.

--I liked her from the start anyways, but Nekone has been a fantastic character in this game so far. Rulutieh--who I didn't care about at all in the first game--is also climbing at a reasonable pace up the character rankings.

--Game needs more Kuon. Let her come back dammit.
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Yeah it's a series. Ever17 is actually the second game in the series interestingly enough. It works almost completely fine as a standalone though, and it's also the only one that the majority of the English fanbase has played I would guess. (I think it was the only one with a translation for a long time? Not 100% sure)
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"Oh I don't recognize what's going on in this picture"

*searches Kiseki Wiki for clarification using keywords from text*

"oh..."
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