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

(+) Yeah! (+)

Day 4: Best Airship Theme
Final Fantasy VIII - Ride On
https://youtu.be/WS1EJiUM91s

Finally a day with some real competition! This was a tight race between VII, VIII, and IX here. You could persuade me of any of them on a given day.

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Oh, Airship, I can do this one!

Think I'd go with: Final Fantasy VI - Searching for Friends for that.

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Searching for Friends #1 by a lot!

FFIV Airship #2 I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPcCqdaXBv0

One of the best songs from that game.
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Searching for Friends is very good, too. FFIV's airship theme is all right.

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Also, tomorrow is actually a loaded category. Best character theme is a tough one. Lots of good ones over the years.

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Best airship theme huh. Thats tough. FF5s is actually the first one that popped into my head, but I actually like FF9s a lot too.

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WandaVision Episode 4 complete!

This confirms what I thought was going on, but I feel like they should've saved it for a little later.

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Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Episode 61 complete!

What a bizarre episode.

R.I.P. Bradley

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Okay, as I'm re-watching Attack on Titan season 2, I'm trying to piece together what's happening here. Since there was no wall breach, I'm guessing Zeke snuck in at some point and started turning people in the outlying villages into Titans. And based on the reaction of Reiner, Bertolt, and Ymir when they see the Beast Titan, they weren't expecting Zeke to show up.

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I am gonna call it. Cold Steel 4 is the best one because it lets me put my controller down during lengthy cutscenes. Thank you, Falcom, that's really nice.

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Decided to pull an all-nighter and beat P5R.

More thoughts on the last arc when I'm not dead but man.

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I'm trying to remember the last time I stayed up super late trying to finish a game.

Might even been Cold Steel II because I didn't realize the epilogue was 12 hours long.

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Janus5k posted...

More thoughts on the last arc when I'm not dead but man.

hype

Looking forward to reading those!

Leonhart4 posted...

Might even been Cold Steel II because I didn't realize the epilogue was 12 hours long.

sometimes you wonder if we're all still in it

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Day 5: Best Character Theme
Final Fantasy VI - Celes's Theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK8ZIWDLxgY

Specifically the orchestral version. I've always been charmed by the haunting beauty of this one, for whatever the reason. This is a loaded category. Honorable mentions to X-Death, Cyan, Locke, Kefka, Aerith, Cid, Ovelia, Yuna, Lightning, Snow, and maybe some others I forgot!

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There's a lot of good choices for character theme, but I feel like I've got to go with Yuna's Theme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNLcIYq_kQ4

Such a nostalgic song. Long list of honorable mentions is something Rydia, Terra, Celes, Aerith, Freya, Steiner (ok this one's a guilty pleasure), and Vivi. Also Beatrix if you count Rose of May as her theme song, even if it isn't actually named that. I remember liking some of the FFXIII ones also but I can't actually recall what they sound like right now.
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Oh yeah, Terra's another good one. I was only really counting "named" character themes, so I didn't include Beatrix there. Otherwise, I would've also included "My Mind" from FFVIII, which effectively functions as Rinoa's theme.

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Best character theme is Gilgamesh obviously

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I don't know that Clash at the Big Bridge counts as a character theme!

It might show up for me later though.

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celes's theme probably wouldn't even be top 5 for me, and ff6 is my favorite ff by music!
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I couldn't find the specific arrangement of her theme I like best, unfortunately. I guess it got taken down at some point. I'm trying to go a little out of the box for some of these.

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FFVI is the best game in the series for character themes. Terra's Theme, Celes's Theme, Kefka's Theme, Rachel's Theme, all great stuff.

Aeris and Rikku are the main ones I like outside FFVI. More Aeris than Rikku.
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Think I would go with Final Fantasy XIII - Snow's Theme for character theme under the same rules as Leon (named character theme) with the caveat that I'm arbitrarily excluding Caius's Theme because I've always thought of that more as a boss theme even though there's no particular reason it can't be both. Otherwise I think it'd take this for me. Shoutout to Arecia's Theme from Type-0 for being another one I really like that probably gets almost no mention from anyone else.

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Mac Arrowny posted...

FFVI is the best game in the series for character themes. Terra's Theme, Celes's Theme, Kefka's Theme, Rachel's Theme, all great stuff.

I think I'd agree, although X and XIII have a few really good ones, too.

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If we dont count CotBB (which I think should count!) I think I might go with Aeriths

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Hey, you can count it if you want! I'm just saying I limited myself to songs that were explicitly titled character themes.

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I mean, if you're including battle music, that adds a whole bunch of other songs, from One Winged Angel to J-E-N-O-V-A to The Man with the Machine Gun to Seymour Battle!
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alright I somehow just slept all day after that but hadn't been sleeping well for a while so I'll take it

anyway some P5R new content thoughts (this feels like it'll be a large black wall so sorry in advance)

I said last time that Maruki seemed too obviously like a villain, and... that was sort of right? Honestly his motivation felt kind of basic but I guess he's only human. I do like how the cast acknowledged that he was helping people (and even themselves - more on this later), and honestly as a player it's hard to fault him completely knowing what normally happens after the God of Control fight. The Palace itself was fine, although it felt like a missed opportunity in the Exam Room when "Steal people's hearts to reform society" was a correct answer and the Phantom Thieves didn't seem to acknowledge that Maruki actually supported that. A bit disappointed we never heard what was on his calling card but eh. Fight itself was... interesting. First phase felt like an extended Baton Pass tutorial, second phase might have been intense if I wasn't level 99 (which was waaaaaaay too easy to get just running stuff over in Mementos looking for stamps), and then the third was basically just a cutscene? lmao the fistfight and LMAO Morgana turning into a helicopter just by the power of believe. also Persona once again absolutely nailed a final boss theme in terms of context - don't know exactly how much I'd like it as a standalone but Throw Away Your Mask was great. Really liked Life Will Change 2 too, shame it barely played.

Of course the main draw of Third Semester was the two new additions to the team. Akechi just being in full heel mode was incredible - I love how he didn't even try to be friends with anyone, and oh my GOD his battle dialogue was so delightfully crazy. could tell his VA had a lot of fun with it. Probably peaked at "do your goddamn JOB" in the final boss cutscene. the tease of him actually surviving at the end was nice if kind of expected.

I had thought it was odd how frequently Kasumi was referred to by just her last name, and... I guess that's because she wasn't Kasumi! Sumire's story was pretty sad, and it made sense that she wouldn't be for changing Maruki's world at first, but of course it was great to see her move on and reclaim her own identity. Really liked the second half of her confidant, and her struggles in the first part of the game definitely made more sense too. Feel like the game wanted to assert that Joker x Sumire was "sort of" canon which I could probably get behind even if it felt kinda forced at first. Did she not get a goodbye conversation the day before you leave though? That was lame.

For the other new content... a lot of January was just messing around since Confidants were so easy to max, but I mean that's better than the opposite. I did like the added message chains throughout Royal with pictures, since they tried to show that the Phantom Thieves were actually friends, and generally liked the new events. Was definitely a little bittersweet seeing Futaba with her mother and Haru with her father (and Makoto talking about hers), though I felt like they could have done more with that. The Rank 11 confidants were kind of repetitive but they made more sense than the ones in P4G at least, and Yusuke's was kinda funny. Laughed way too hard at Morgana "disappearing" and then waltzing in like it was nothing for the second time. The scene in March where everyone decides to split up and follow their dreams (though it sounded like half of them would still be in the city, just busy) was a bit sad, but at the same time Maruki's reality actually giving them incentive to really pursue their happiness made a lot of sense (especially for cases like Ryuji where no one had to come back to life). Though in some cases I guess that was just following their arc from Confidants. see Cold Steel II this was all you needed to add to the end. Think I liked the change to the actual ending too - felt like a weird half-goodbye for the gang to just give Joker a ride home in the original.

Surprise chocolate from Sae the day after standing up her sister, nice. Had never actually heard of White Day but getting a single redemptive shot after P5's subdued Valentine's event was nice. (Did Sumire for Valentine's and then Makoto for White.) Sojiro really solidifying his position as best bro, god damn

Overall I think I liked the added content more than Golden's, though it's sort of hard to compare since a lot of that was just more fun events with the Investigation Team (which in fairness fit P4 very well). Definitely feel a lot better about P5 - probably doesn't top P4G for me (that's still my favorite game of all time), but this did a good job of closing the gap, at least.

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P5 Royal: I absolutely adored the Third Semester as you could surmise from my previous comment on it. Maruki being a friendly, well-meaning villain was cool, as was the surrealness of the altered world (and some of the cracks in it implied in some incidental NPC dialogue that come off as nightmarish when viewed in full context from forcing everything to try and adjust to Maruki's reality.) Akechi and Sumire were absolutely amazing additions to the cast and while I wish they could have joined earlier (well Akechi couldn't in this capacity obviously) it was great having them here. Akechi's VA definitely having the time of his life lol.

Loved the new Palace in pretty much all regards: the aesthetics and especially the dungeon theme. "Gentle Madman" so good. The boss fight was A+++ too and up there with P3's Final Boss for me. Keep Your Faith and Throw Away Your Mask are both incredible boss themes and Maruki's exchanges with your active party are really good (especially Akechi lmao.) I loved the fistfight being the end of it too. Helicopter was lol though yes.

Not a fan of the "Akechi lives??? maybe???" thing but I can just pretend Joker was hallucinating or something. And yeah it's dumb that Sumire didn't have a last day conversation. I think the intent was for the ending cutscene to cover that but bleh. Even Akechi sort of had one if you went to the Jazz Club! Agreed that the change to the end was an improvement as well.

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AoT S4E...4? god how can i not even remember anymore? watched

Oh my god we've gone full-circle now. Eren waiting in a basement. Also since we were talking about them before, this episode had a post credits scene so whenever you get here Leon keep that in mind.

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Well, as long as the ED is good I won't skip it! I always watch the OP and ED for every show (which my wife finds annoying sometimes actually!).

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LeonhartFour posted...

Well, as long as the ED is good I won't skip it! I always watch the OP and ED for every show (which my wife finds annoying sometimes actually!).

Yeah, this is the exact same for me except that I'm not married.

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I wish all tv used anime style ops and eds

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Always skip em all.

Netflix skip features are great
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Skip features are the worst because of how you can accidentally trigger them, so then I have to rewind and hope I don't accidentally trigger it again.

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Day 6: Best Town Theme
Final Fantasy VIII - Fisherman's Horizon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKTBDhT55ns

There can be no other. The orchestral version is especially great. I'll throw in a special mention for an underrated track, which is the New Bodhum theme from Final Fantasy XIII-2.

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They need to let you turn off the skip buttons. So annoying to have to manually not skip every time.

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Not 100% sure if it's my favorite but I've always been a fan of Bran Bal from FFIX. Particularly this version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOP8AtJXQfA
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Besaid Island reigns eternal

Not sure what I'd have after that. Cosmo Canyon? Oh right, the Ishgard music from FFXIV's also really damn good. One of the coolest parts is that it has four variations for whether you're in the wealthy or poor district and whether it's day or night. Gives some variety to a place you'll be spending a lot of time, but they still feel like the same theme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kcw8xNxkZtM
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Mac Arrowny posted...

Besaid Island reigns eternal

only if it's the X-2 version

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New Bodhum from XIII-2 immediately comes to mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEpR6wH4RJs
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Beat the Ice Vellumental in Origami King. It was pretty fun, although I wasn't a huge fan of the dungeon.

I do appreciate the nod to Zelda in the main area outside of that dungeon though.

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Paper Mario is the best Wind Waker since Wind Waker.

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Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Episode 62 complete!

A bold strategy by Al. Let's see if it pays off for him.

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FF Town Theme: ...Yeah, think I'm gonna go with Final Fantasy X - Besaid Island here as well which feels like cheating to me because I think of it as a hybrid area theme too but whatevs.

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Technically the song doesn't actually even play in Besaid Village! Spira Unplugged plays inside the actual village.

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X-2 Besaid is better anyway. FH is a really good choice, but I might go with My Home, Sweet Home from FFV.

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dowolf posted...

New Bodhum from XIII-2 immediately comes to mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEpR6wH4RJs

This is also a great one. 13-2 soundtrack is so damn good.

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LeonhartFour posted...

Technically the song doesn't actually even play in Besaid Village! Spira Unplugged plays inside the actual village.

oh. you know i was thinking that might be the case but didn't want to confirm.

then maybe it is fisherman's horizon idk

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Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Episode 63 complete!

You know, I'm not totally sure I get how all that actually worked, but I didn't expect this show to lean on the power of friendship so hard at the end.

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FMA: Brotherhood: I love how Ed "beats" Truth there at the Gate. Great moment.

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