Board 8 > SaveEstelle & LeonhartFour in New Houses: Football Returns Edition [SELF]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Lloyd doesn't deserve to be with the best girl, so it's perfectly fitting to ship him with the worst girl.

it took more games than it did for the rest of lloyd's harem but with reverie the capture king finally caught my heart so i can no longer allow you to talk about my boy like this

>_>

MacArrowny posted...

Some of the Daydreams are written by other authors than the main story author, which explains why they might not necessarily fit into canon.

that, uh, explains a lot. Specifically, that the writing quality in JP varies pretty wildly in them. Though it backs up something that I've felt again and again over the last few months, that Reverie is technically so much better written than Hajimari that it distorts/improves so much of the experience.

Case in point, Reverie making someone like Lloyd's character more is just bizarroland stuff to me >_>

maybe the real mvp is robbie daymond then because while I think my first Reverie post noted how weird it felt to me hearing the Crossbell cast in English again since I was coming pretty recently from Zero + Azure leading up to this by the end he is my lloyd now.

His performance was top-notch. I mean, I think the VAs for English Trails have generally done an excellent job overall but yeah.

Hmm, maybe. I've generally tried not to look up the English VA's because I suspect I'm not gonna like it (case in point: i have Opinions(tm) on the Daybreak trailer). It's one of those things where, at best, it's going to equal the original, and at worst it will make me angry, so >_>

I definitely did not like Lloyd more after Reverie.

Many characters maintained the same standing more or less, but really the only major characters I liked more as a result of Reverie are Rean and the Ironbloods, and in the case of the latter it's in large part because I was previously at an all-time low on them due to how Cold Steel 4 went down.

I guess maybe Ash actually, now that I think about it.

Also I suppose Reverie didn't make me like Renne more exactly, but it did make me much more enthusiastic about her continued presence in the series.

Robbie Daymond is excellent. I've yet to hear him in anything where I did not enjoy his performance. I think the English voice acting for Trails up to this point has generally been pretty solid, but he's a highlight, for sure.

Now the voice acting in that first English Daybreak trailer is...suspect, to say the least.

IDK, I feel like the VAs for Cold Steel through Reverie are pretty damn solid. I think the only one I think is a complete miss is English Campanella. But even in cases where I prefer the JPN VA like Tio that's more a credit to the JPN seiyuu and nothing against her English VA.

Although I should note that I only extensively have heard the JPN voice track for Zero and Azure so it's really only Crossbell characters (and some of the Liberl ones) I can do a direct comparison on.

Thorn, who are some character that you like less after Reverie?

I mean, I wanted to avoid any in-depth discussion on specifics until I'm actually done with the game since the Reverie Corridor is still a thing but...

I'd say characters that I felt had weaker roles here were (in no particular order): Olivier, Agate, Wald, Millium, Elliot, Laura, and Musse but I don't particularly know if I like them less after all this (with the possible exception of Agate because I feel like Falcom keeps getting closer and closer to taking the plunge on the Tita ship and making him seem more okay with it and just.... no)... like it's not like any of those did something that tanked my opinion on them. They just either didn't do much or I didn't particularly care for the direction they went.

I consider this distinct from certain plotlines I did not like. I feel like I mentioned a few of these as I went but: I still think the plotline of Lloyd and the SSS "losing their way" was completely forced and not reflected in their actual attitude. It's just, I don't really count that against any of the individual characters too much because as forced as I felt it was they didn't really linger on the point much and beyond that it kind of ended up distributed over the entire SSS since they all just claim they felt the same rather than it all falling on Lloyd. The Ilya plotline also fell pretty flat for me and probably no surprise it is a pretty close parallel to the SSS one. Weirdly I think it reflects less poorly on *Ilya* because hell I'll take any angle on her character that isn't "commit crimes against Rixia" even if the actual *plotline* I disliked more because it was much more front and center.

https://youtu.be/ErhN32lpQqc?si=RETSVpCJGta58cPw

Now featuring Athena Cykes as narrator!

Frasier 2.0 Episode 5 complete!

Frasier self-sabotaging himself out of getting something he really wants is a classic formula for the show, but it really isn't the same without Niles around.

although I guess it's not the same in the sense that he did eventually get what he wanted in the end

wow it's wild to see a boss in Reverie is vulnerable to Vanish lawl

wait really? lmao

I just fought the boss in the Heimdallr Catacombs with Rean in Act 2, and a Vanish slot came up. Vanish worked and I won the fight!

Beautiful.

I am making my first visit to the Reverie Corridor at last. It's nice that Lloyd's and Rean's inventories are combined now.

Darn you Reverie Corridor for making winning at Vantage Masters part of the missions

At least Pom Pom Party is back

excuse me, vantage masters is the game of choice for sophisticated people

Though I got pretty good at Pom Pom Party (well maybe) by the end of Reverie because of how many times you play it if you want 100% lol.

Finished my first Daydream in Reverie!

That was pretty cool. I like how they explain the nature of books in Trails. Swin, Nidia, and Rixia fighting over a misunderstanding and realizing it at the exact same time was great. I liked their conversation over what their ways of life should be, and how Rixia decided she can be the Batman to Lloyd's Superman. Lloyd/Rixia forever imhotbqh

Yeah, that's a great daydream.

I hate this card game

You can just not play it. There are an infinite number of missions, since they randomly generate.

That's good to know

begone Vantage Masters

So how do I know when I've done everything there is to do in the Reverie Corridor? I know I can go back out now, but the game also lets you rearrange stuff and refills treasure chests. I guess the main thing I'm asking is if I can get more Red, Blue, and Gold Spheres after my first time through or if I have to wait until the next time I can come back.

You can see the number of Red/Blue/Gold spheres that are acquirable on the fast travel screen. It'll say like, 4/4, 3/3, 4/5 in the bottom right corner.

Yeah, I saw that, but I wanted to make sure there wasn't something I'm missing.

Looks like I can still get another Blue Sphere, so I'm going back in!

Loki Season 2 Episode 5 complete!

This felt like the first time in a while the show was actually about Loki instead of a show that just has him as the lead.

Finished my first trip through the Reverie Corridor with a Daydream about a Day in the Life of the SSS. This pretty much sums up your average day in the Crossbell games, yep.

I also dared to play Magical Girl Alisa. Is this the same story from when it was a minigame previously? I noticed it was using older music at points.

Anyway, back to Act 2, we have a clash between Team Rean and Team C. It was fun getting to do the fight from both sides, although they did purposefully keep Rean out of the Team C battle side. It was still a tough fight since Team C doesn't have as many options at its disposal.

I do wonder what Swin and Nadia are really up to and why they're helping C. They don't seem like "bad guys," especially when compared to that Daydream. Of course, I guess there's no guarantee C is a "bad guy" at this point either since we don't know what his real intentions are yet. All I can say for sure is that Lapis (or should I say Dolly) is just in it for the food.

it's all about the benjamirans

Reverie (post-game): Completed the fifth stratum.

Can't think of a good flow for this other than basically describing what I did in rough order.

Set up my "main characters/plot" team which is: Lloyd, Rean, C, Renne, Estelle, Joshua, Lapis, and Vita. The 5 protagonists are self-explanatory. Lapis is nearly one herself but also falls in the Renne/Vita group of "I think the most interesting insights/reactions will come from them" group. Got a Gold Seal Stone on the way to the end of the fourth stratum and the Space Whale and it gave me Olivier and Still-Not-Playable-Damn-You-Falcom Schera.

Then I watched the Daydream from the White Sealing Stone: oh ya Star Door 14-2. Has McBurn really been trying to find his way here since the end of CS4 when he said he wanted to have a chat with the Grandmaster after his memories returned lol? The Grandmaster is super chill about it and just congratulates him for making it to the Celestial Sphere without Campanella's help though notes that with some of his memories back it probably wasn't that hard. McBurn agrees and says he thinks he figured out who the Grandmaster *really* is but that if he tried to confirm it he'd probably "lose this form." ??? Does he mean his human form and would be stuck in his Overlord form? Does he mean a physical form entirely? If Zemuria really is a sim does he mean "logging out" and basically losing his player character? falcommmmmmm. Anyway, the Grandmaster asks him to stick with Ouroboros because only he - not the Anguis - can be their "guiding light" and McBurn assents because he's come to like Zemuria so why not. Then Novartis pops in and McBurn somehow knows exactly what Novartis was up to with trying to clone him and asks the two of them if they know how the fuck his research data got deleted because it looks like an inside job to him. McBurn is about to tell him to fuck off but then has a thought that he might know who could pull it off and they refer to a group in Ored.

Then Calvard's President video-calls in which absolutely stuns Novartis and even McBurn seems impressed. There was a company logo right before his feed came up and Novartis accuses him of working with them but Gramhart clarifies he just hired them to make this call and has no further connection to them. He also says the Grandmaster doesn't seem surprised because she's chill as ever and she's like "yep. you were always going to be the next major problem." He then wants to make a deal with her where for the next two and a half years he won't interfere with the Eternal Recurrence plan if they don't interfere with his plan. Novartis is offended and McBurn is like "look at those balls" but the Grandmaster readily agrees and vaguely hints to the nature of Gramhart's plan before Gramhart makes a vague threat towards them and hangs up.

Back at the Garden: So I unlocked the Corridor Depths and there's some story chatter from the group when the AI tells them the irregularities are preventing it from shutting the Corridor down even though it's fulfilled its purpose. Someone (Vita maybe?) mentions that it *should* be impossible to interfere with a phase space from the outside and I'm immediately struck with the juxtaposition of this claim with Gramhart calling into the Celestial Sphere - which IIRC is Ouroboros's phase space meeting room. I guess Gramhart calling in may not qualify as interference in the same way but it makes that whole bit more intriguing. McBurn cutting his way in checks out because he's like the most supernatural being in the setting and armed with a Divergent Laws weapon to boot. But Gramhart apparently got in with help from an IT company.

Anyway, the team concludes this must be the result of Elysium since they finally remember the system notification they got back in the Finale that it tried to interfere over 4000 times. The plot team sets forth (from the halfway point of the fourth stratum because I'm OCD about this) and we pick up another Gold Stone on the way to the elevator. I open it to find... LMAO McBurn. I am making it my personal canon that after the Ouroboros Daydream he got yeeted into the Reverie Corridor by us. He replaces Vita on the main plot team because I think he probably has more knowledge on the situation even if Vita is likely more motivated to share/hint. need more character space tbqh. We scale the fifth stratum and find the boss to be... oh lol Overlord McBurn - and the game has the spooky glitch black lines as it does his intro.

Afterwards, while the team is trying to discuss WTF - someone says even Elysium couldn't replicate that (are they sure? *Novartis* couldn't but I didn't think *Elysium* ever took a swing at recreating the Divergent Laws or anything) - I laugh as the real McBurn finally chimes in and is like "why are you so worried guys? ...Well, I guess if that copy wasn't careful it could have destroyed this entire space" lol. He also thinks that now things are getting interesting and that if the administrator is throwing this at them they've finally got serious when the administrator(?) appears as a hologram and gives us cryptic warnings. It never gives us a solid look at her but based on the party reactions and talking to them in the Garden afterwards (my boy Zeit implies he's figured it out already like a boss) I'm thinking we're dealing with KeA Alter or Demiourgous somehow. Which honestly almost makes sense because I don't know how many more floors we have but it's pretty damn hard to escalate from *Overlord McBurn*. Like I'm not even sure Arianrhod isn't a downgrade from there and the only way up is basically multi-Sept-Terrion shenanigans (I'm taking McBurn over Aurole!Weissmann) like the Great One and Azure Demiourgous.

Oh we also got another Gold Stone... and it's George. I apologize if I ever previously suggested I had bad gacha luck with these which I think I did with Angelica. I found the worst pull. Anyway, having seen the party chats and such I decided instead of my initial plan of just getting the Gold Stones on my way, I'd try to just get them all now to keep from missing any more potential dialogue - plus I needed to level some people up for the new Trial Doors so I ran the fifth stratum again and luckily got the last two stones I can get now - Laura's dad and then finally Toval. Trophy popped on Toval for Master Quartz so that might be everyone!

Oh, right, some minigames opened too. I did these earlier but it's fine to talk about them now I guess. Some more Pom Pom Party but I think they were easier than the "final boss" opponent from before. Also VM Dojo lol. I wonder if this would be a bit tougher if I didn't beat McBurn first because of the broken card you get from that. I've just rolled over all opposition there effortlessly.

Played a bit more Reverie tonight, still working my way through Act 2.

Rean and company find all the supplies they've been looking for, as well as Erebonian soldiers meeting up with the Ebon Defense Force. Then they bust out a Gospel replica and reveal they plan to use it to stage a coup in Heimdallr the next day. The Gospel replica does indeed work and makes Millium, Altina, and Elliot all but useless, so we have to beat down the bad guys without them.

I'm beginning to think C has been toying with Rean with the intention of helping him discover everything going on in Heimdallr. Stealing Millium's ARCUS and then not even attempting to hide their escape route underground make it seem like C's goal all along was for Rean to discover the conspiracy so he could stop it. This adds fuel to my theory that this is an inside job by Rufus, but we'll see!

Nadia says she's figured out who C is, but she's not willing to share this info with us! She just threatens to make C regret it if he even thinks of harming Swin, which he handles in stride by saying this means they'll be best friends as long as he doesn't. The EDF guys get away from Rean, but C manages to take them down and they aren't quite so deft at handling Nadia's threats (and poor Lapis is aghast at hearing these promises of torture).

Attack on Titan Final Season Final Part Final Part Spoilers

I didn't watch the first season exactly when it first aired so this journey was just under 10 years for me. I thought this episode was quite good. I'm going to miss 3D Maneuver Gear combat since it always looks so cool. I must say that I never expected than Eren would be trying to pull a ZR. Although, it doesn't seem to go very well in the longer term. I'm was sad when it seemed like Jean wasn't going to make it since I came to like him a lot over the years. Then the author went back on it so I'm not sure what to think anymore. >_> I'm going to miss Mikasa as well. I should go find that red scarf I bought 10 years ago...

let's just hope we don't have to wait 6 months for the dub again

Finished Act 2 for Rean and C!

And there's the reveal that Rufus is C. I liked the touch that Jusis was the one to unmask him. He claims that the title of Supreme Leader of Crossbell does not belong to him, but it's hard to tell in which direction he's being cryptic with that remark. He could mean like three different things by that...!

He also says he had nothing to do with Olivert and Schera's disappearance, but he clearly knows something about it since he directs Rean to the Nord Highlands. He claims the story was nice bait though, which made me think my theory is right after all. Rufus is pretending to be the big bad here for some ulterior motive, but I can't fathom what it is yet.

oh right and Crow is back too

man it's annoying when you finish the fight on the 41st turn when you need to finish in 40 turns for the bonus and the only reason you couldn't finish in time was because Lloyd was put to sleep without you realizing it before you waste a turn augh

And with that, Lloyd Act 2 complete!

Aw yeah Zeit is back to resume his duties as police dog! Fighting off Garcia and Cao together was a pretty cool fight, and Rixia is finally confronted with the fact that Ilya is the brainwashing dancer (who may also be brainwashed herself? I guess we'll see!). We're also reunited with the Gralsritter trio.

Oh yeah, I guess I should ask who everyone got for their first Golden Sphere unlock. I ended up with Roselia first, which doesn't seem too bad of a first draw!

George and Angelica seem to be the two most common results.

The pool of available characters grows as the game goes on so it's impossible to get certain characters only. I think there's only 3 or 4 on the first stratum.

well if those were my other options then I'm definitely satisfied with my draw!

All right, I played the opening segment of C's Route in Act 3.

I like the deep dive into Rufus's psyche here. I've always found him a really interesting character, so if this is an attempt at a redemption arc, I'm all for it (although he denies he's looking for redemption and has accepted that he's essentially a sociopath, someone who feels nothing for others except for how he can use them for his own benefit).

He says his goals are to take out his impostor (we already know there's an Artifact that lets you take on another person's appearance, if I recall correctly) and settle a past debt. Rufus does feel a certain responsibility to Crossbell for his own past actions as well as the current actions of his impostor.

I think Rufus essentially confirmed my theory by saying he doesn't intend to do the heroes' work for them, but rather he intends to clear the path for them to do what needs to be done. I like his line here when he says, "No need to imitate what has already been perfected."

Later on, Rufus and Lapis have a heart-to-heart about what it means to be human, which gets him thinking about his own identity crisis. His life has felt aimless and meaningless, and despite his attempts to find his purpose by following Osborne, that all fell apart when he was bested by Jusis, who had surpassed him as a man despite his disadvantages. It's kind of refreshing to hear all of this in Rufus's own words because he deliberately kept himself at a distance emotionally from everyone else in the Cold Steel games.

also LOL Jingo trying to teach Cerberus to fly the airship and Swin desperately rushing in to save them from crashing, I was kinda hoping it would work imhotbqh

Beat Minerva in Crisis Core. And I just got the Buster Sword lol.

This game is really really bad and I love it.

My first Gold Sealing Stone gave me Angelica. At least she gives you a good MQ!

C Route Early Act 3: cerberus could have done it. swin standing in the way of progress tbqh. More seriously, yeah, I liked the Rufus scenes here too.

I didn't like Rufus at all in the CS games, so it's refreshing that they made him totally different for Reverie! I quite enjoy his character here.

aww man postgame spoiler talk time (2 days late whoops). I'd written more but then realized you still had stuff left so deleted half of it but!

Nitpicky, but what else do you expect from me: I really don't like how they translated the name of the "Grandmaster" daydream. "Look back to look forward" is just kinda wrong. The line in question is "Ushiro no shoumen, da_are?" which astute nerds will recognize as a line from Higurashi's opening theme -- but probably more relevantly, it's originally a line from Kagome Kagome, a children's song/game (similar to ring around the rosies). What exactly this line means is literally the subject of academic debate, but here it is almost certainly used to mean something like "Who is the puppetmaster holding the strings?" Which, of course, actually fits with the contents of the story.

Well, as I mentioned in one of the Finale write-ups, you can tell the translation and editing kind of went out to lunch later in the game so I suppose that doesn't surprise me!

And yeah, I haven't made any progress since then, sorry. >.< just haven't had the energy to play during my free time.

Finished book 4 of the Wheel of Time

I remembered this as one of the strongest books in the series and this time was no different. Moghedien is awesome. The Aiel are awesome. I'd somehow managed to forget entirely about the section where Rand learns the history of the Aiel, which might well be the best part of the series so far. Perrin and Faile's stuff is also fantastic here. Overall I remember their plotlines being a bit hit-or-miss*, but this part of their story is right up there with the best parts of the series.

Great book overall. They might have spent a bit too much time moping around at the start, though I suppose I'm just going to have to resign myself to that if I have any hope of making it through the series this time around. No actually sure whether I liked this or The Great Hunt more but they're both cleanly ahead of books 1 and 3. I guess I'll go with 4 > 2 > 1 > 3 as the ranking for now.

*This view might be influenced a bit by the fact that I most recently dropped the series right in the middle of what I'm told is the worst of it for Perrin and Faile.

Heck yeah Book 4 the best

GameFAQs keeps trying to make me watch the sad N7 Day Mass Effect 4 footage of a generic soldier walking down a hallway

don't you mean Mass Effect Epsilon?

Book 4 definitely a top book in the series. Was a contender for my #1 for a long time.

https://youtu.be/clx_FhjdxIY?si=FLkRMO_4Ei0HueqJ

Heck yeah 5-2