Lurker > voltch

Ok back to back pity.

Gonna take me a few days to mentally recover from that.

Though thank god for Clairvoyance Ex

Whew, now back up to having enough to pity Oberon via SQ/SQ Fragments. Did not want to dip into the ticket fund.

Yonezu Kenshi end credit song cleared.

The MV dropped on his channel a few hours ago too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kUZ0LoUELI

Great game was worth purchasing a PS5 for, had many nitpicks earlier, but for the most part they got addressed as the game went on. Not really settled on where I'd rank it among my fav FFs, likely somewhere in the top 10 but outside the top 5.

Ending didn't end up changing my mind too much, though I much prefer Ardyn as a main villain among recent entries.

Game did leave me wanting for more big budget FF content, so hopefully we don't have to wait 5+ years for a non-Remake entry.

Ok got the big sword and I don't see any bigger swords to get in this game.

Relatively painless to get compared with the crap FFX made you go through, but other FFs have had nicer quests attached to getting an ultimate weapon.

Am I super slow or did I do stuff people didn't bother with?

About 50 hours in, 95% of story cleared and then boom 9 sidequests show up.
Cleared all hunts up to this point including that big dragon ages ago

In a vacuum it's a good system.
But I would like to see them take a step back from it.

Also whatever the next entry is.

I'm okay saying farewell to the stagger system. It can stay as a legacy mechanic in the Remakes though.

About 50 hours in, spending time on the hunts and not progressing to the final dungeon just yet.

At this point, I'm pretty sure I know where the game will land unless it throws something drastically different at the end.
It's a top 10 FF game I've played for sure, but not quite top 5.

It's introduced a lot of cool new things, but at the same time while playing the game, you can already tell how they could improve on these, some of those elements have already been pointed out in the topic.
But crucially, the game did not sell me on the notion that all FFs going forward should follow the template this game has set. As a standalone entry great, but I wouldn't want the next 3 mainline entries to be like this.

So who managed to exploit the SQ glitch?
In any case that's some maintenance, login streaks are at stake now!

Pity Koyanskaya, should be able to collect enough SQ to secure pity for Oberon.

Gonna be a long endurance test to save up for the 2024 banners once Summer tix have been spent.

On the aesthetics, no city in XVI so far has had that wow factor FFXV/FFVII remake had.

For XVII whenever that comes out if it's just taking the best bits of XVI and the VII Remake games that'd be perfect.

For spectacle, gonna be hard to top this Bahamut fight.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h6hxknNBjk8

I just really needed to know how to climb this tower after getting stuck for so long.

That and I'll often check when going through Bevelle Cloister Trials because I can never remember the path and a couple of mistakes leads to hell.

Tbh these days I enter a search string into YouTube and have some rando's vid show how to do certain section.

While for something like Persona social link management...I'll use gamefaqs.

damn, so they outdid gamefaqs on that front.

Gotta give them credit for nagivating through the online space this well for this long.

Just noticed their main channel has 17.5m subs, more than Playstation, Nintendo of America and other big gaming channels.

I didn't realise they now had such a big online imprint, since I just remember them as the guys people joked about for having game bad reviews with weird scores.
What worked for them that didn't with like say Gametrailers or even Gamespot?

The 3m number appears to be shipped too.

Byron appears to be one of the most vital characters introduced so far.
Had we gotten another 5 more misery instances I'd have checked out of the plot.
But he adds much needed levity.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mpX1QWpYU0M
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-YlLwsEt0Js

So this is what it was all about.
Seems like it really helped.

what exactly was the CR Cup thing that just took place over in JP?
People seemed to have gotten majorly hyped for it.

The human execs keep making irrational decisions, so leaving optimal strategic decisions to a more advanced AI will likely improve things.

Did not realise we had a regular FGO thread going.

Castoria banner up...but who doesn't have one yet?

what if the Kiryu parts are action but Ichiban remains turn based?

Hope they bring back old school terms.
Want to party switch via PHS

Right but the Commanders are going for "only" 6 or 7b.

Saudis can outbid that p comfortably for a few teams.

Qatar hadn't even bought PSG yet and had the World Cup in the bag.

So Phil comes out as the freedom fighter against the PGA by siding with the Saudis.

Sucks for Masuyama and Rory but greed trumps all.

Saudis have already made big moves in sports Europeans care about like Football, Golf and F1.

If they took a genuine interest in taking over American sports, would NBA/NFL/MLB owners say no to 10, 15 or 20bn USD offers?

Hiroshima style okonomiyaki?

So had Home worked would Scarlet/Violet have been able to include all pokemon fixing the old Dexit issues?

Guess I'll have to just back Violet Evergarden and Sound Euphonium for girly shows.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BI0OAHw3oI0&pp=ygUKdW1hIG11c3VtZQ%3D%3D

The only girl anime I've not back but would consider lately.

I actually like the Paladin arc of GS.

Frieren or The Apothecary Diaries if they are done well will likely be better shows by a fair margin.

Doesn't always translate to better performance but eh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-deSKW4_KI8

One day best girl Kaiki will triumph....one day.

Oh right as a reminder current winners.

SMFAS 1 Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
SMFAS 2 Cowboy Bebop
SMFAS 3 Baccano
SMFAS 4 Hunter x Hunter (2011)
SMFAS 5 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
SMFAS 6 Monster
SMFAS 7 Death Note
SMFAS 8 Legend of the Galactic Heroes
SMFAS 9 A Place Furher The the Universe
SMFAS 10 Steins;Gate

Assuming I run an OP/ED contest, what candidates would you guys put forward?

Could name hundreds of OPs I like, but wonder if any of these would do well.

https://animethemes.moe/anime/toaru_kagaku_no_railgun/OP1-NCBD1080
https://animethemes.moe/anime/clannad_after_story_mou_hitotsu_no_sekai_kyou_hen/OP-NCBD1080
https://animethemes.moe/anime/zan_sayonara_zetsubou_sensei_bangaichi/OPv2-BD
https://animethemes.moe/anime/log_horizon/OP-NCBD1080
https://animethemes.moe/anime/after_war_gundam_x/OP1-NCBD1080
https://animethemes.moe/anime/kakumeiki_valvrave/OP-NCBD1080
https://animethemes.moe/anime/tenjou_tenge/OP-NCBD1080

Grand Final Results:

Steins;Gate: 208
Fate/Zero: 135

After calling Steins;Gate the favourite to win it all for years and and year, it finally wins its first title.
It has come close a number of times, losing to Baccano in SMFAS 3 and last year it got pipped to the final by Odd Taxi.
But this year everything finally came together.

Fate/Zero's got a pretty wild history in this contest, with some spectacular failures, but for whatever reason it kept surviving the middle rounds.
Then a bit of a bandwagon formed as usual and it went on a good tear in the later rounds.

Both series were popular a decade ago and do remain so with some good heritage coming from them.
Heck Lisa who sang the Oath Sign opening for Fate/Zero went on to become a megastar in Ufotable's smash success adaptation of Demon Slayer.

With this win this makes this our first champion to be an anime adaptation of a video game.
We've had anime originals, anime reboots, manga adaptations, light novels, novels, but never a game. So we're doing a good job on variety.

Next year should be another straightforward affair, we're cutting the field further down from 60 Entrants to 50.
Not sure yet if I'll keep the top 20 as returning entrants or reduce to 15.
In any case my main priority Monogatari will continue to flop come top 10 time!
Not sure what the secondary priority will be, Oshi no Ko is certainly a good candidate, but I'm seeing some big time shows coming out later in the year.

I'll revisit the movie ban with more and more films coming out close to their JP releases and the legal availability increasing.

Oh and I'm considering but nothing concrete of just doing an Anime Opening/Ending tournament, straight knockouts, not sure if people would be interested in this.
But I'd keep it short.

Final Standings:

01. Steins;Gate
02. Fate/Zero
03. Mushishi
04. Odd Taxi
05. Dragon Ball Z
06. Baccano!
07. Monogatari
08. Mob Psycho 100
09. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
10. Kaguya-sama: Love Is War
11. Zombie Land Saga
12. Lupin the Third
13. Haikyuu!!
14. Bocchi the Rock
15. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
16. Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom
17. Legend of the Galactic Heroes
18. Puella Magi Madoka Magica
19. Spy x Family
20. Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo
21. The Tatami Galaxy
22. KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World!
23. Mononoke
24. My Dress-Up Darling
25. Revolutionary Girl Utena
26. Beastars
27. Lycoris Recoil
28. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
29. Aggretsuko
30. Digimon Tamers
31. D4DJ
32. Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World-
33. Bleach
34. Rurouni Kenshin
35. A Place Further Than the Universe
36. Yu Yu Hakusho
37. Dennou Coil
38. Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury
39. Chainsaw Man
40. Kino's Journey (2003)
41. Made in Abyss
42. March Comes in like a Lion
43. Haibane Renmei
44. Welcome to the NHK
45. 86 - Eighty Six
46. One Piece
47. Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight
48. Naruto
49. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
50. Violet Evergarden
51. Non Non Biyori
52. Shining Tears X Wind
53. Akebi's Sailor Uniform
54. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
55. Aria
56. Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibouken (2020)
57. Jujustu Kaisen
58. Run With the Wind
59. Shaman King (2021)
60. DNA

We're done.

Fate/Zero 12

Fate/Zero 11

Fate/Zero 10

Fate/Zero 9

Fate/Zero 8

Fate/Zero 7

Fate/Zero 6

Fate/Zero 5

Fate/Zero 4

oh wait dammit super early

Fate/Zero 4

Fate/Zero 3

Fate/Zero 2

Fate/Zero