Board 8 > SaveEstelle & LeonhartFour in New Houses: Next-Gen Edition [SELF]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Loved it, seen it more than once

Ace Attorney
Clannad
Cowboy Bebop
Full Metal Panic!
Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
Hyouka
Kanon
Kawai Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behavior
My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU
Persona 4 The Animation
ReLIFE
Sailor Moon
School Rumble
Steins;Gate
The Disappearance of Yuki Nagato
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Toradora!
Tsuredure Children
Working!!

Really liked it, will watch again

Angel Beats
Attack on Titan
Baccano!
Eureka Seven
Fate/stay night
Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works
Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo
Kaguya-sama: Love is War
Mob Psycho 100
Planetes
Psycho-Pass
Usagi Drop
Violet Evergarden

Liked it, but probably won't watch again

Air
Azumanga Daioh
Dragon Ball
Fate/Zero
Great Teacher Onizuka
Love Hina
Mobile Suit Gundam 00
Ouran High School Host Club
Sweetness & Lightning
Trigun
Tsukigakirei
Your Lie in April
Yu Yu Hakusho

Didn't like it, definitely won't watch again

Beyond the Boundary
Code Geass
Persona 4 The Golden Animation
Persona 5 The Animation

Dropped it, never finished

Fullmetal Alchemist
Gurren Lagann
Monogatari
Slayers

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Fresh Prince of Bel-Air by default for being the only one I've seen even part of. >_>

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co
stan
za

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George pretty easily

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I was always a fan of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Parks and Rec and HIMYM also pretty solid. Wouldn't say I'm very familiar with the rest though I've seen a few episodes here and there for most of them.
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The only one of these I've seen a significant amount of is HIMYM so I guess that's my vote

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looks to me like some people in this topic need to do a seinfeld watch

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The Mana Sword posted...

looks to me like some people in this topic need to do a seinfeld watch

My wife and I will occasionally turn it on when we're lying in bed at the end of the night. She never really watched it growing up, so this is all new to her.

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ya go my Brotherhood

Rewatched it for the first time earlier this year and it was still great.

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Seinfeld is my favorite but you can't beat Will freakin Smith

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pjbasis posted...

Seinfeld is my favorite but you can't beat Will freakin Smith

Bee Movie vs. Wild Wild West, go.
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A Place Further Than The Universe Episode 6 complete!

That was a good episode for Hinata and Shirase, and I enjoyed the blatant Engrish throughout.

also how was that the first time Shirase had opened her purse since they got there

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https://store.steampowered.com/app/1457520/The_Legend_of_Heroes_Zero_no_Kiseki_KAI/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1461920/The_Legend_of_Heroes_Ao_no_Kiseki_KAI/

hmm

(Chinese and Korean only)
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if they announce both DGS and the Crossbell games for English localizations I won't need anything else for Christmas this year

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To be fair, this doesn't necessarily mean much, since Zero's been on PC in Chinese for like a decade.

LeonhartFour posted...

if they announce both DGS and the Crossbell games for English localizations I won't need anything else for Christmas this year

better than AA7 eh
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AA7 would be great, too, but getting games in English you never thought you'd get in English is a bigger surprise than a new game announcement in a long running series!

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Hmm...My Mass Effect wallet is finally starting to fall apart after many years of faithful service. Should I simply replace it or find a different video game wallet? Let's see what Amazon has to offer.

Huh, they have a wallet in the shape of a PS1. That feels impractical to carry in my pocket! They've got wallets shaped like Mario 1 and Zelda 1 cartridges. They've got lots of Zelda and Overwatch styles. Oh hey, a wallet with Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles sprites on it. We may have a winner.

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Cold Steel IV Act 1 Chapter 3 continued!

We're in the Central Square in Crossbell. I'm kinda glad I brought Machias along now just for that interaction with Patiry at Times. In the cafe, we run into the Hayworths, and we discover that he's been conscripted for service. Not gonna lie, I suspected that he might secretly be a bad guy in Trails From Zero. Now unless it's still a secret, it looks like I might be wrong on that one! At Genten, Wendy tells us that no one knows what Lloyd is up to right now. In the square itself, we run into Coppe, the SSS roof cat, and Mimi, the little girl who never got what SSS stood for right. Now it seems like she can't remember what the SSS is at all, and Alisa wonders if it might be a side effect of the Great Twilight since they're a symbol of hope in Crossbell. That's an interesting theory, and it might kind of jive with what we saw at the beginning when New Class VII forgot all about Rean.

Nothing really interesting on Station Street, so our last stop is West Street. Juna is reluctant to visit her family because she doesn't want to get them in trouble, so we decide to ask around about them instead. First, we drop by the bakery. Oscar's back from Heimdallr, but it turns out he's been drafted, so tough break for Bennet. They ask him if anything's been different about the neighborhood lately, but the only thing that comes to mind is that the Crossbell News Service moved in. The CNS is now where Grimwood's Law Office used to be. I feel like nothing was there in CS3, so this isn't a new development. Now it makes me wonder what happened to the dude! Grace and Reins are inside, and it seems like they've been expecting us to show up.

Grace says she might be able to offer us some useful info about Rean. She talks about her connection to the SSS and says she was even caught up in Operation Birdcage. They need to make a DLC mission about Operation Birdcage where you play as Lloyd and the SSS, or maybe they'll go into detail about it in Hajimari, who knows! Musse muses that the CNS has more access to info than your run-of-the-mill news service should have, which causes Reins to perk up, but Grace downplays it. She confirms that Rufus is indeed away, but it strikes her as a bit too convenient. A trap, perhaps? Huh, Pete's still around, but no sign of Grimwood. Now I'm really curious!

Now that we've visited all the major spots, Juna finally feels safe enough to visit her family. We get a heartwarming reunion with her mom and siblings. Turns out Louise is here, too, for some reason! She says that Valerie, Freddy, and Stark are all operating out of Crossbell, too, although they're all working independently at the moment. The profile picture of Freddy is truly the stuff of nightmares. Louise mentions that there's a hacker at work who's been leaking confidential military info and publicly criticizing the government's decisions. I feel like the game wants you to assume it's Jonas, but my gut tells me it's Tio. Then Louise gets an anonymous orbmail directed at Class VII, asking to meet them at the X Sector in the Geofront. Yeah, this definitely sounds like Tio's doing. The way to the X Sector is through the casino, so that's where we're off to next.

I decided to play some Poker at the casino, and it frustrates me that higher pair doesn't win in the event of a tie. Drake gives us the key to the Geofront with no questions asked, so that's nice. When we get down there, we get a call from Jonas, so yeah, it's him. Darn, I was hoping for some misdirection! The song that plays down here is great, by the way.

More later.

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The Office Season 7 Episode 5 complete!

Andy's band has potential.

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LeonhartFour posted...

I decided to play some Poker at the casino, and it frustrates me that higher pair doesn't win in the event of a tie. Drake gives us the key to the Geofront with no questions asked, so that's nice. When we get down there, we get a call from Jonas, so yeah, it's him. Darn, I was hoping for some misdirection! The song that plays down here is great, by the way.

Yes, higher pair not winning is so annoying. Also agreed on the CS4 Geofront theme being great.

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The Office Season 7 Episode 6 complete!

Everyone trolling Stanley at the beginning was excellent.

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Dragon Ball Z Episode 14 complete!

It feels like Goku is stuck in an endless loop of the last five episodes of Dragon Ball.

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Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Episode 1 complete!

I vaguely remembered most of the characters in this episode, and I remembered the backstory of the Elrics, too. That was enough to let me follow along with what was happening even though they didn't explain much.

My wife is going to watch this with me, too, because she watched some of it once but she doesn't remember ever finishing it.

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Did she watch Brotherhood or the original series?
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She watched Brotherhood. She had no idea there was another version.

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o ya go my fma: brotherhood

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Now back to Cold Steel IV Act 1 Chapter 3!

We find Jona and Sully in Sector X. Sully calls it "Arc en SEEL," which hurts me as someone who studied French in high school. Juna remembers that Tio told her about Jona, and he offers to trade info with them. We tell them about what's going on in Erebonia, and Jona says the Azure Tree/presidency debacle must've been part of the plan all along. I imagine I won't even get to that part in Trails From Zero, or it'll be a cliffhanger at the end at best! Musse explains that the Phantasmal Blaze plan was to use Crossbell's false phantasm to awaken the blaze in Erebonia, so I'm glad someone finally explained why it was called that! Or they explained it again, in case I simply forgot...!

Jona offers to help us find the singularity, only because he wants to see how far Rean has fallen after he once gave Lloyd all he could handle. Jona gets offended that Ash calls him a nerd because he's actually a geek and there's a difference (he's right, you know). We hear an archaism roll by, and so everyone decides it's time to bail. Before we can make it to the exit, the archaisms catch up to us, but they don't prove to be too tough. For some reason, Heiyue is waiting for us beyond that. Cao Lee reveals they've made a contract with another party, which I'm guessing is Ouroboros by the fact that he summons some more archaisms. Kurt has the same idea, but Musse thinks they're actually working for Rufus.

Thankfully, Estelle and Elie both show up to save the day. It's so wild to see Estelle introducing herself to Class VII. Elie mentions that the SSS had an indirect working relationship with Heiyue at one point. I'm guessing she means Rixia? Class VII leaves the scene right before Estelle hits them with Wheel of Time, unfortunately, and we emerge from the lighthouse at the Harbor District. Juna reveals that Elie is the current acting secretary, whatever that actually entails! Musse knows who Estelle is, as does Altina, naturally, since the Intelligence Division has been keeping tabs on her.

Speaking of which, Lechter and Campanella are spying on us from above. Lechter says the Jade Rook is back, and that was Rufus's code name, right? Then he talks about handing it over to "the next guy." Campanella says that Operation Jormungandr is almost ready to go.

Sully takes us to the old SSS headquarters to lie low for a bit. Jona said he was the one who told Estelle and Elie that Class VII was coming to meet him. After Jona gets some info from the orbal network, they call Louise over to discuss their strategy going forward. They still can't find any news about the black Pleroma Grass, but they do hear that Rufus has just returned from Garrelia Fortress. There's also some news about St. Ursula, and Sully mentions they have a contact there. Juna correctly guesses it's Cecile, and then Sully also mentions that Lloyd is probably at the convalescent home they set up in Armorica Village since they had to transfer Ilya there in the middle of her rehab. Is Joshua with him, I wonder?

They produce a map that displays where all the archaisms have been showing up, and it's mostly in the northern part of the state. Musse suggests that maybe they're intentionally trying to divert the attentions of the SSS and the bracers away from the south, so we decide to head to St. Ursula to rendezvous with Valerie. Louise also says she received word from Freddy, saying he discovered something interesting at the old field exercise camp, so we're going there first. We check out Lloyd's old room and find a picture of the SSS, including KeA and Zeit, so I guess he sticks around. I stumble upon a couple of spoilers by finding out a room that's currently vacant in Trails From Zero later becomes Wazy's room, and the other vacant room eventually belongs to Noel. I guess that one makes sense since she's already been a temporary party member!

That's all for tonight.

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IIRC the first episode of Brotherhood is like the only filler one.

Also, proud voter of Chandler Bing.

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LeonhartFour posted...

Elie mentions that the SSS had an indirect working relationship with Heiyue at one point. I'm guessing she means Rixia?

I think there's actually 2 parts to this. In Trails of Azure, (spoilers for Azure, but relatively minor if you've already played CS2) some stuff surrounding the Azure Tree incident causes the two parties to temporarily cooperate under an "enemy of my enemy is my friend" sort of logic.

This actually continues into some stuff covered in Cold Steel 2 which you can see in the Divertissement: The operation Lloyd and Rixia are doing in that sequence is in collaboration with Heiyue, and you actually see the two of them talking to Cao Lee on a terminal at the beginning and I think again in the middle of that chapter. I think it's implied Heiyue is cooperating with the resistance movement in Crossbell trying to undermine the influence of Erebonia during the occupation
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LeonhartFour posted...

Musse explains that the Phantasmal Blaze plan was to use Crossbell's false phantasm to awaken the blaze in Erebonia, so I'm glad someone finally explained why it was called that! Or they explained it again, in case I simply forgot...!

It's definitely mentioned a few times in CS3. I... forget if Vita mentions it in CS2. My gut tells me yes but part of me says no so idk. Definitely stated in CS3.

LeonhartFour posted...

Lechter says the Jade Rook is back, and that was Rufus's code name, right?

Yep.

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It definitely wasn't explained in CS2 because I remember being very confused about how Osborne could hijack it! Part of me thought it might have been mentioned in CS3, which is why I hedged on me simply forgetting it!

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Yeah, that's what the part of me that thought it couldn't have been said in CS2 was saying - there were too many questions over wtf was going on at that point. (My gut was saying "nuh uh! Pull up a video or something and try the scenes here or there!" but I was too lazy to dig through playthrough videos. >_>)

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tbh the game that explains the Phantasmal Blaze plan the best is Trails of Azure I think.

I think there's like 1 line about it from Vita in CS2 that might technically be an explanation but that probably shouldn't count.
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I feel like I will be upset I can't immediately play Azure once I finish Zero.

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pyresword posted...

tbh the game that explains the Phantasmal Blaze plan the best is Trails of Azure I think.

Can you remind me what that was? It's been a while since I played Azure, and the plans always feel a little nonsensical.
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Hey, the Gospel Plan made sense! Probably helped that it was a lot more straightforward than whatever Phantasmal Blaze is!

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Oh yeah, that one was more simple and easy. What was Weissman/Ouroboros's final goal again though? He wanted to get the power, and then use it to...?
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Mac Arrowny posted...

Oh yeah, that one was more simple and easy. What was Weissman/Ouroboros's final goal again though? He wanted to get the power, and then use it to...?

Well, those are different answers!

Ouroboros wanted the Aureole. Weissman probably wanted something boring like unlimited power.

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Mac Arrowny posted...

What was Weissman/Ouroboros's final goal again though? He wanted to get the power, and then use it to...?

I think there actually was a split right at the very end.

Weissmann wanted to use the power of the Aureole to forcibly evolve humanity to a higher, more "rational" state. However, after he loses to the party and runs away, right before he encounters Kevin he starts talking to himself about how he thinks the Grandmaster was "testing" him too (rather than just him "testing" the SC party) and that him losing was actually foreseen by the Grandmaster and that he intended to have words with them about it when he returned. Of course he gets shot by Kevin a minute later but given Campanella pops in to grab the Aureole (which was still in his staff) and in 3rd claims turning it over to the Grandmaster is his most important duty in Star Door 14's meeting I think the clear implication is that Ouroboros's goal was to get the Aureole (for still unclear reasons) but that Weissmann was under the mistaken impression that he was cleared to use it to try and remake humanity into his ideal.

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So then we still don't know the full plan :p
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Well, that's why it's an ongoing series still...!

Basically the end goal for every plan of Ouroboros is find and collect the Sept-Terrions, and somehow the Grandmaster always knows what convoluted thing you have to do to draw them out of hiding.

perhaps because it's Aidios but who knows

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Mac Arrowny posted...

So then we still don't know the full plan :p

No, we do!

Star Door 14 makes it pretty apparent that Ouroboros's "grand" overarching plan is the Orpheus Final Plan and that we still don't know anything about unless you want to speculate about the real-word mythology implication of "Orpheus"

But that plan has several (at least two) "subplans" that must be fulfilled in pursuit of it: Stage 1 was the Gospel Plan, and Stage 2 is Phantasmal Blaze. The Grandmaster makes that clear when declaring the completion of Gospel and commencement of Phantasmal Blaze. How many subsections there are here is unknown though. As far as we can tell though the Gospel Plan was to grab the Aureole. I suppose it is true that depending on the overall plan it may turn out that the Gospel Plan's objective may be re-contexualized from what we currently assume but I don't think it's likely it would largely impact our understanding of it too much.

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Mac Arrowny posted...

Can you remind me what that was? It's been a while since I played Azure, and the plans always feel a little nonsensical.

Well, I feel like the plan is a little nonsensical no matter how you look at it but basically:

The stuff that's going on in Crossbell during Azure with the Azure-Zero project, and I think specifically the appearance of the Azure Tree, causes mana/magical energy/whatever to surge through the ground in Crossbell and neighboring countries. For reasons(???), gaining access to the Sept-Terrion in Erebonia requires lots of magical energy, a condition which is now met and allows for things like the appearance of the Infernal Castle and the activation of whatever ritual occurs when the Divine Knights fight each other.

I guess why all those things matter for accessing the Sept-Terrion is something that's elaborated on in CS3 and the beginning of CS4 Act 2, but basically my understanding is that the Divine Knights are fractured pieces of the two Sept-Terrions and that this ritual allows them to fuse together...or something.
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Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Episode 2 complete!

I'm remembering more details from the first version than I expected, so it's been easy to follow along.

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Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Episode 3 complete!

One of these days, Japanese media will portray western religion in a positive light.

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I think Western religion is more likely to get a positive portrayal if the enemies are something like vampires. But, sometimes that's more just the main character group being good and the higher ups are still corrupt.
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Leonhart4 posted...

One of these days, Japanese media will portray western religion in a positive light.

Septian Church isn't evil... yet... and clearly takes its cues from Western religion!

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There was that one priest in CS4 complaining that the church isn't doing anything about the problems in Erebonia...
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As if the plot of the final Kiseki game is going to be anything other than Ouroboros, Yun Ka-fai, and various good guy characters all teaming up to take down the Septian Church and Aidios after having revealed their playing hand at last and moving on to do...uh...JRPG villain things.
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Well actually I guess I think it's pretty unlikely the entirety of the Septian Church as an organization is evil especially considering we have multiple party members and one main character as Dominions, so what I really mean is various higher-ups of the Church.
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