Lurker > pyresword

Oh yeah can confirm following along with Cold Steel 4 sceenshots and whatnot has already spoiled me a lot on on Cold Steel 3 lmao.
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Zero no Kiseki - Formidable Enemy


Divekick - Boss


A Hat in Time - You Are All Bad Guys


Gurumin - To Make the End of Digging


Remember11: The Age of Infinity - All or None


(all I could find was an extended version I'm sorry. Loops at around 2 minutes or so)

Tried to tune this to your tastes somewhat, but I think we generally like different stuff so who knows how successful that was. (And then I still threw in one version of sadvnpianosong.mp3 because I can't help myself)
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Clannad
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I don't think the chances of a CS3 localization have changed. Most predictions were that even if CS3 was picked up immediately by XSEED we still wouldn't have an announcement now, since they tend to wait to announce things until late in the process now.

Crossbell though...uh...yeah. I wouldn't get your hopes up.
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The Cold Steel games are coming to PS4 I believe.

Trails in the Sky is a much better set of games (as are Zero/Ao, so I'm told), but the Cold Steel games that have made it to the West are still pretty good.
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I heard the same Cold Steel 4 news (probably) and am super excited.
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UltimaterializerX posted...

global defense at the expense of American dollars.

You know what this is a deal I'm pretty okay with as an American, even in the scenario where Trump isn't being misleading or dishonest about how he's presenting this. (And my guess would be that he is because well it's Trump, but this isn't an issue I know much about)
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Antarctica
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tag

Probably won't come up with stuff until tomorrow though
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Bump since I'm working late and might not be updating tonight.

Mask of Truth good, particularly the first hour or so with Kuon.
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Oh man I am suddenly very very glad I never decided to try out Life is Strange.
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Most likely any political survey question that uses the phrase "at all costs" is a poorly written question tbh.

Edit: Unless the entire point of it is just to isolate out the most extreme cases, but it really does seem weird for polls like this where there are more answers than just yes/no.
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I don't post here often but if anyone's curious where I supposedly fall.

https://8values.github.io/results.html?e=59.8&d=68.1&g=63.5&s=70.0
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Actually I am going to put what was post #50 here instead so that it doesn't get lost at the bottom of the last page. So, for everyone's information:

Also I will continue leaving thoughts in here as I play through Mask of Truth, so for those that have only played Mask of Deception, this is your warning that there will be spoilers for Mask of Truth past this point in the topic. Initially I'll just put literally everything on Mask of Truth behind spoiler bars so that any discussion on Mask of Deception can finish without those people having to worry, but I'll probably stop that after a couple days time or something.

In particular I will mention that I think it's going to be impossible to discuss Mask of Truth in any capacity without spoiling certain things from the ending to Mask of Deception, so read any future update posts from me at your own risk, regardless of whether or not they are marked. (Again, for the time being any Mask of Truth post will be placed behind spoiler bars.)

Anyway going ahead with Mask of Truth now, so yeah. (Actually I already played an hour or so last night, but whatever...)
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Ok so yeah final thoughts on Mask of Deception (Major endgame spoilers below, yadda yadda)

Really like the ending overall. Really interesting direction to take Haku's character by having him essentially throw away his life/identity in order to keep his/his friend's hopes for Yamato alive. The story is going to miss Ukon I think, but I'm relatively confident that removing him is going to be a springboard to better places even if he was a pretty good character. One thing I will say is that for Haku's character arc to come full-circle I think he has to bring back the Haku persona in a real capacity at some point, similar to how the Oshtor/Ukon dynamic worked out. This almost certainly won't (and shouldn't) happen quickly, but I am going to be somewhat disappointed if he just pretends to be Oshtor for the entire 3rd game.

Also yes the one thing I didn't like about the ending is the way Nekone acts during the fight itself. If you want to have Nekone be responsible for Oshtor's death then that's fine, and it's probably essential for the direction they want to take her character in the next game. But, having her run screaming into the middle of a heated battle is kind of dumb. There's plenty of other ways they can capture the same effect without making it seem to be outright stupidity. For example maybe have the two of them watching from above and then Nekone loses her footing and falls into the fray of things? In any case I didn't like the way they handled this particular aspect.)

As a whole I really liked the game, especially considering it feels we're only just now getting to the story that these two games really wanted to tell. I do wish the game and been a bit longer and that some of the side characters (think people in a similar position to Asuy, for example) had gotten more development, but those aren't major complaints at the end of the day. The plot points the game wanted to focus on were handled really well, mostly. Also this is something that's generally hard to nail down the exact cause, but this is one of those games that for whatever reason was really easy for me to sit down and play for extended periods of time. And given the workload I have in grad school right now and how hard it is for things to hold my attention as a result, that's not an insignificant thing.

Other random comments:
--Haven't talked about the gameplay much because as I alluded to above it's really not why I'm playing these games, but it was pretty good. I feel like the difficulty on Normal was not well-balanced (as in it was slightly too easy), but eh.

--Interestingly, one particular scene I'd be really interested to see in Mask of Truth is some kind of confrontation between Haku and Aruru (who I'm assuming could figure out his secret relatively easily). From a plot continuity standpoint it's hard for me to imagine right now how such an interaction between these two characters could be brought about, but it would be interesting to see nontheless.

--Just to get this out of the way now, I will mention that I fully expect the mental well-being of various characters to get worse before it gets better. It's possible Nekone's already at rock-bottom here, so to speak, but I expect that as the plot develops in the next game that Haku and Kuon in particular will not be doing so hot...

--Just realized never mentioned anything about Kuon having literal demon god powers so uh yeah that's a thing. (Something related to this is also a plot point of the first game I think, yes?
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He irks me because he strikes me as more of a science enthusiast than an actual scientist, but he's certainly not dumb (or especially close, even) by any stretch of the imagination.
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Antarctica
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Hate: RPG's that feature instant death spells while also having a "party leader death=Game Over" mechanic.
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Is the postgame worth doing, given that I'm someone who is mainly in this for the story? I was planning on just jumping straight into Mask of Truth.
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Mask of Deception beated. Probably make a longer post tomorrow maybe.

Pretty great ending other than one mostly minor detail. There are...uh...a lot of ways Mask of Truth could play out and I'm pretty excited to see how this goes.

Also uh I guess I'll edit spoiler tags into my previous post lol. Think anyone reading this already knows how it plays out but whatever,
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NO KUON STOP HE'S RlGHT THERE WHAT ARE YOU DOING
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Long day at work and I don't feel like doing an extended update, but I played more last night.

Yamato got got by Tuskur, to the surprise of everyone other than Kuon (who is still the best by the way). Then the Mikado got got by...someone, and they're framing Oshtor for it. And now the main party is back in the capital and will presumably be saving the princess and Oshtor.

(Next paragraph gonna all be in spoilers just in case) By the way I have no idea who would've killed the Mikado. Entua is the obvious answer, which is precisely why it can't be her, along with the fact that the writers wouldn't have bothered to come up with that weird hypnotizing excuse she gave if it wasn't actually what happened (there was no need for her to bring up the subject at all). Also I'll be disappointed if they end up retcon-ing the emotional weight of her previous arc like that. So that leaves...who? The most likely candidates in my mind (Woshis, Raiko) appear to have been ruled out by their own inner monologue. Vurai's character doesn't make any sense if it was him. No way is it Munechika or Dekopompo. Don't think it's anyone I've met from Tuskur either although Karulau/Touka might have been prepared to do it themselves. Mikazuchi maybe? He didn't strike me as that type of character but I guess you never know. (Either Mask of Truth or the end of this game is gonna be real interesting if it was Mikazuchi...) He also knows about Haku's gang and may have been in a reasonable position to use those undead Uzurashians which we fought in a battle on Tuskur. There's also that one pillar general who was introduced as a nobody (Tokifusa). I don't know much about him but that makes him as good a suspect as any.

Oh and also until looking through the glossary a second ago I totally forgot about that dude (seemingly Kuon's dad) who Haku met in a bar. Not sure I buy him as a suspect either but again it's as good a guess as any.
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Watchmen
Batman Begins
The Dark Knight
V for Vendetta
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My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU
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I probably just sucked at the game but I died like 15 times to the Xaldin fight in KH2 I swear. Pretty sure there was one other that gave me some trouble also but I don't remember which one.
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Antarctica
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LeonhartFour posted...

the last part of Frodo and Sam's story in the Two Towers book takes place in the Return of the King movie.

This is nearly the only thing I liked better about the books (which I'm generally not a fan of) than the movies. Thought the spot the book ended was much better, but I guess they wanted to put more tense scenes in the 3rd movie and focus mostly on Helm's Deep here.

(The other major thing I liked better, which I think is an outright screw-up on the movies' part is the way they handled Faramir's character. They took out a few of his important scenes in the third book and also made some pretty major personality changes to the way he acts in the second book that are not for the better. Bleh.)
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oh shit
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Ok so a lot's happened. Notable events include an invasion from a barbarian nation whose name I've already forgotten, as they are beaten back by the 8 generals some of whom have literal godlike powers. (Vurai is scary...) There's also bunch of foreshadowing, of some sci-fi stuff, which leads up to the reveals that humans have gone near extinct on account of turning into deadly slime things. Also the Mikado is a human (which was pretty obvious), and is also Haku's brother from before he got put to sleep or whatever. Also now there is talk of an invasion of Tuskur which brings me untold amounts of rage. I swear to god if you make Kuon cry...

Other comments:
--Lots of good scenes I haven't explicitly mentioned above. The investigation of Dekopompo's ship and Haku/Ukon sharing drinks afterwards was fantastic. Also a huge fan of the scene with the purple haired barbarian girl when she is found by Jackwaldt and Haku after the barbarian war was really great. Having trouble putting into words, but stories like that about peacefully diffusing pent up emotion are a thing that really gets me a lot.

--Also a huge fan of the Mikado's backstory. Made him into a really tragic character which caught me somewhat off-guard.

--Not a huge fan of the twins for a few reasons.

--I like Camyu and Aruru. Also Kuon got some pretty solid development in those scenes and is looking to get more in this upcoming arc, which is great.

Anyway think that's all I've got for now. Really looking forward to where the game is going from here though.

Also are people still reading this? It doesn't necessarily bother me much if you don't have anything to say, but I want to at least ensure I'm talking to a silent crowd and not a non-existant one.
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Bump. Stuff started happening. Will hopefully make a real post later.

Also does anyone know how long the game is? Feels like I'm about halfway through based on my impressions and the number of secret trophies there are, not I'm not sure
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Squirtle but this is a rare case when all of them are great.
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Zelos posted...

What's the funniest anime of all time?

Carnival Phantasm

...this one is probably not a popular opinion.

Also it's not as good when watched in isolation since it's a parody of other works.
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Oh duh I know one thing I forgot, which is preliminary character rankings:

Kuon > Haku > Ukon/Oshtor > Nekone > Karulau > Anju > Atuy > Nosuri > Maroro > Rulutieh > Touka > Kiwru > Moznu
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Ok so yeah. Was trying to play healthy amount last night but I kept assuming a good stopping point was just around the corner. Figured incorrectly that there'd be a battle when we went to guard the fat general's storehouse, and then again figured incorrectly there'd be a battle when we went to intercept Nosori doing something. There are a lot (and boy do I mean a lot) of slice-of-life type of scenes in the meantime. Which again are quite entertaining but don't give me much to talk about here. Other significant developments include the twins leading me to a strange strikingly human-like man (presumably the Mikado), and then both the princess of Yamato and one of the most powerful generals of the land laying claim to our stashes of snacks and BL. >.>

Oh also something's up with Kuon, as I've seen her talking to a mysterious invisible stranger (or something) and the snippets of conversation we here are somewhat ominous, at least for her well-being.

Other comments
--I won't say everything is a hit, but this series has some A+ comedy scenes. I especially liked Nosuri raining gold on the citizens of the capital and also the whole shogi gag during the warehouse mission.

--A bit about Anju. I wouldn't say I like her comedy scenes necessarily (though I don't really dislike them either. However I think she has a lot of potential to be a great character once the plot starts getting serious

Ok think that's all I have for now. I probably forgot something as I'm a bit distracted at the moment but if I remember something else I'll post it. Maybe.
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Ok we can agree on that much then!

Of course, now the debate turns to how well the situation I've described represents reality, but I lack the time/energy and probably the expertise to make any significant attempt at arguing that point.
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What if everyone starts with the same points but then some lawmaker or policy or whatever--either by accident or through maliciousness--takes away points from one specific group? Should they get the points back or does that count as giving out bonus points?
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I dare you to find ANYONE with a smaller ignore list than me. Literally anyone, I dare you. See how it works out.
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For the record I wouldn't say I'm totally on-board with affirmative action myself.

For most of my life I've actually been opposed to it, and have only in the past 2 years or so decided that I think it is actually addressing a problem and is better than doing nothing. It still doesn't totally sit well with me though and it seems like there is likely a better solution out there. What that is I don't know. From a theoretical standpoint it makes sense to basically do affirmative action but explicitly on the basis of socioeconomic background rather than race (so poor white applicants receive the same preferential treatment as poor minority applicants), but there could easily be practical hurdles to actually implementing such an idea.
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I feel like the difference in views here is more subtle than either of you guys are letting on. (If I'm putting words in either of your mouth's then let me know, and I'll delete/edit my post so as not to spread misinformation)

It seems to me like Jakyl is viewing colleges primarily as an institution which provide services to society as a whole, a lens through which it appears racist to set up the institution in a way which systematically favors one race over another, when examining the aggregates.

On the other hand, it seems to me like Corrik is viewing colleges primarily as an institution which provide services to individuals, a lens through which it appears racist to favor one particular individual over another particular individual on the basis of race.

I'm not sure what I think the correct way to view this issue is. My gut reaction to say that it should be the former framing for publicly funded institutions, but for privately funded institutions it probably depends?
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This doesn't necessarily answer the question from a creator's standpoint, but as a consumer I definitely prefer no music to bad music scenes. I am thinking of a few examples, but I'm not naming them because I don't want this post to be about hating on those anime.
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"Oh let me just play until the start of the next combat scene and then I'll go to bed. It's probably not that far away."

Boy what a mistake.
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Bump for weekday evening people. (last time I'll bump for reasons other than keeping the topic alive)

Anyways it looks like there's some interest here at least, so I'll probably keep this going. I probably won't make get as involved as I have for other playthrough topics I've made (I went to character limit on updates in my Trails of Cold Steel playthrough thread multiple times...), but I'll at least try and provide updates/thoughts similar to what I did above.

Also I understand. I am also terrible at posting in threads that I'm following along with sometimes.

Anyway going to play more now. I did get somewhat farther after my update last night. It's been mostly silly VN antics though, as the only real development is that I also met Atuy. I'm totally okay with VN antics mind you (I liked kick-the-can in Ever17...), but it doesn't exactly give much talking material here. Oh I guess there was also a spooky foreboding scene of the twins talking to someone (presumably the Mikado) in an altar.

Edit: Oh one other thing I forgot to mention is that my video game playing habits don't always lend themselves well to making playthrough topics. It wouldn't be unheard of for me to go 4 days in a row without playing and then randomly play 8-10 hours straight on a weekend and not even know where to begin with a topic update >.>
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Nelson_Mandela posted...

FFVIII jumps to mind but I'm sure I'm forgetting something. Am I crazy or do I remember ToS being up there?

I remember liking Tales of Symphonia also. It's what I was going to say for this topic before I remembered TTYD after that
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I actually don't have a lot of good examples here, surprisingly

Tohru Adachi (Persona 4)
Ace (Gentarou Hongou) (Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors)
Kirei Kotomine (Fate/Stay Night)

HM: Lysanderoth (various ProZD videos such as )
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Does it count if I say Tartarus?

Actual answer I'm going to give is probably Paper Mario TTYD, though it's possible I'm forgetting something. There's nothing really leaping to mind as being great.
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Kuon is my favorite so far, but take that with a grain of salt as nobody has really done all that much yet
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Bumping this for people who are potentially on at this time.
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Still not certain if I'm going to keep this topic going throughout, but I'll keep it updated in the meantime and bump it for the nighttime crowd. (especially because progress will likely not be as rapid as it was today given that it is a holiday)

Anyways I played a lot today. We're now in the capital and it looks like for the immediate future we're going to be doing various unsavory jobs for Ukon/Oshtor (truly a SHOCKING twist). Part of me is I think going to miss when it was just Kuon and Haku journeying in the woods, but I suppose we have to transition to the bigger picture eventually. "Two people on a journey across the world" is one of my favorite story frameworks in existence though, so part of me was wishing it would stay like that. (There's a reason I like Trails in the Sky FC so much ok.) Anyway not much else to say as it's been mostly character exposition so far, but I am enjoying it.

Miscellaneous remarks:

--Nekone is a pretty entertaining character. Not as big on Rulutieh's archetype comparatively speaking, but whatever. She still has a cute giant bird at least, and what more can I really ask for?

--I can't quite put my finger on it but something seems seriously off about Kuon. To a certain extent you can just write it off as a quirky anime girl personality, but it feels like there's more to it than that. I'm sensing a deeply tragic/traumatic past and possibly a betrayal of the main group coming up in the future. Less confident about the 2nd of those and don't have much concrete to base that on anyway, but my gut also has a decent track record with these things.

--One advantage(?) of getting an artbook with your game is that it allows you to identify when secretly powerful characters appear before being properly introduced. Such as when they are masquerading as candy sellers or as yaoi authors, for example. (ok one was a bit of an open secret anyway, but still)
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I am Haku. (Soon-to-be) master combat strategist, and also playmate of giant birds. Didn't realize I was actually signing up for Hato

Game is pretty good so far. Kuon is indeed great. Also I'm glad our protagonist isn't quite as much of a fish-out-of-water in this world as I thought it was going to be when it was just him and Kuon. Ukon is (ironically) a very sobering presence for me as a player/reader. Also given Kuon's attitude about certain things I'm guessing that there's a lot going on behind-the-scenes with me having been dropped into the middle of it. Not really sure exactly what that is yet, but yeah.

Through looking stuff up I've been spoiled about the setting that I probably wouldn't if I'd just started with this game. I believe it's revealed in the first game, but I have no idea when it's revealed here or how big a deal it is though. Not too concerned on it adversely affected the experience though. It's something some people would already know coming into this game anyways, and it's not exactly the type of reveal that's going to come as a huge shock to people who are trope-savvy enough.
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Well I have Mask of Deception so there is essentially zero chance of me watching the anime of that.
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