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

(+) Yeah! (+)

I like to knock Attack on Titan season 2 but Eren vs. the Armored Titan is a top tier moment for the show. Eren's anger reaches heretofore unseen levels and it's amazing.

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Got past the Cell Saga in the DB manga. I really like the next part.

Still mad that Gohan gets Videl to cut her hair though...!

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The start of the Buu saga is pretty good!

Shame about the remaining 90% of it.
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bradley is prob #1 for me in FMAB, but there's also greed

also yeah FMA03 tailed off hard in the last 25%-50%, but it was one of the most popular anime of all time at the time, and widely viewed as better than like bleach or naruto or dragon ball. as others pointed out, it also felt a lot less shounen-y, so i was actually pretty surprised at how the second half of brotherhood went.
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the grandeur of FF7's overworld is pretty great. do think terra is a better tune but i guess i can see the case for FF7's arrangement
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Mac Arrowny posted...

The start of the Buu saga is pretty good!

Shame about the remaining 90% of it.

Yeah I havent heard great things!

I think I got maybe like 40% of the way through the second season of Kai before stopping last time, so Ill be on to new stuff pretty soon

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(DBZ) i even enjoy the filler at the beginning of the buu saga

honestly it's a huge mess as a whole, with a ton of stuff that doesn't hold up from an "arc" perspective... but there are also like a dozen awesome moments in it, in a vacuum.
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Widely viewed as better than DB, Naruto and Bleach feels like a big stretch to me. DB was busy making anime popular outside of Japan and the other two was around their all time best at that point.

It was up there with them.

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naruto and bleach were probably more popular, but i think in general FMA was clearly seen as being better among anime fans, especially by those who were a bit more disdainful of the traditional shounen trappings in the others.
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Yeah, I mean, I see your point and FMA was probably more well regarded among everyone that had seen it compared to everyone that had seen say Naruto, which did not have the same universal praise. But I still think at that point at least as many people liked Naruto or Bleach more, while I'd agree with you from some years later and onwards.

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SeabassDebeste posted...

bradley is prob #1 for me in FMAB, but there's also greed

also yeah FMA03 tailed off hard in the last 25%-50%, but it was one of the most popular anime of all time at the time, and widely viewed as better than like bleach or naruto or dragon ball. as others pointed out, it also felt a lot less shounen-y, so i was actually pretty surprised at how the second half of brotherhood went.

I just remember everyone telling me not to even bother with the original FMA when I tried to watch it a few years ago! I didn't get the sense it was all that popular.

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i think this is a case of brotherhood really just obsoleting the original

i actually watched through around 65% of the 03 anime a few years back. it gives you more on best character hughes, has a cooler tone/art style, and includes some filler-ish episodes that flesh out the world/characters more. but, it's also slower by a fair margin, and messier in the second half. i didn't wind up finishing the rewatch, but i remember not looking forward to the final 5-10 episodes. FMAB's conclusion, while not flawless, is at least extremely satisfying. it's also the mangaka's intent, so given all that, i do think 03 is obsoleted.

when i watched hunter x hunter (which i do recommend, even though i don't know if it'll be up your alley), i didn't bother with the original anime adaptation either.

the one thing i really missed from FMA03 was its second OP and second ED:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYDcadIKSUg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcZKVPmgxVM

these last during my favorite run of the show, from the alchemist exam to hughes's death.
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I feel like this topic has been trying to get me to try HxH since its inception.

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Only because it's a good show!

Definitely better than DB/Z IMO.
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oh yeah, i don't have any vested interest in your watching hxh - my instincts tell me you'd have it as a tier 2 or 3 anime - but it is probably the most relevant anime in comparing the FMA03 to FMAB!
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Leonhart4 posted...

I just remember everyone telling me not to even bother with the original FMA when I tried to watch it a few years ago! I didn't get the sense it was all that popular.

It just became kinda irrelevant. The only time to watch it is before you watch Brotherhood, and I think it does adapt the early stuff a bit better. (I hate that first episode of Brotherhood for instance, completely fake)

HxH is one of my favorites (though I take some issues with the anime), but it's gotten so popular that I feel it's better off not talking about it anymore instead of hyping it up to unreasonable degrees.

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Okay, I'm going to break this one up into best regular dungeon theme and best final dungeon theme because why would you pick a regular dungeon theme otherwise!

Day 8: Best Dungeon Theme
Normal Dungeon Theme: Final Fantasy VI - Phantom Forest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tbZ_C7H_4k

Final Dungeon Theme: Final Fantasy V - In Search of Light
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23Af7oohc_E

Nailing down what actually does or doesn't count as a dungeon theme is kind of tricky. For regular dungeon themes, I stuck with the ones that are used repeatedly rather than single time use. Using that criteria, I think FFVI's wins, although I am fond of Find Your Way from FFVIII as well.

For final dungeon, it was honestly pretty close between In Search of Light and FFVII's final dungeon, Judgment Day. I just wanted to give FFV's OST some love because I think it's honestly one of the more underrated ones in the series.

Now if I could give a "cheating" answer, I would definitely roll with Final Fantasy XIII's The Sunleth Waterscape. It's probably technically not considered a dungeon, but XIII also doesn't really have dungeons and each area you visit is almost kind of a dungeon in a way. Either way, the song is just so darn good so I had to mention it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEEr1jnvFTw

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Regular dungeon I think I'd go Find Your Way off the top of my head. Final dungeons are all very good. I have a soft spot for FFX-2's Abyss of the Farplane, so for the sake of picking something a bit more interesting I'll go with that.

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FFIV has a couple good ones - Within the Giant and Mt. Ordeals.

Devil's Lab from FFVI is great.

Reunion from FFVII is real good.

Compression of Time from FF8 is excellent.

As Leonhart said, Sunleth Waterscape would be my #1 if I counted it.

But I'll go with Pharos Sirius from FFXIV just for fun. Real epic song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tunBN-ZMnzs
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Oh yeah, Within the Giant is a great single-time dungeon theme. I guess I should've picked something that's only used once outside of the final dungeon, too. Devil's Lab is a strong choice there, too.

eh I'll just let Sunleth Waterscape count for that

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Dungeon Theme is tough af.

You've got: Shinra Company, that Those Chosen By The Planet mix, Compression of Time, Someday The Dream Will End, Dust to Dust, Followers of Chaos, Tempus Finis... aaaaaaagh.

Best Dungeon Theme: Final Fantasy XIII-2 - Followers of Chaos
Otherwise Compression of Time

Best Final Dungeon Theme: Final Fantasy Type-0 - Tempus Finis

i am deeply unhappy with all this i don't want to choose, Followers of Chaos/Compression of Time takes overall, I think.

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Oh shoot, I didn't even consider FFXIV. Praetoreum, Aetherochemical Research Facility and Amaurot are all top tier final dungeon themes. Doma Castle and Qitana Ravel are both good regular ones, but The Twinning is probably the best.

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xp1337 posted...

Someday The Dream Will End

Man, this is a good choice. Might even top Sunleth Waterscape as a cheating answer since I really only consider the Cloister of Trials as "dungeons" in FFX, whether that's fair or not.

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I just got to the boss of the Purple Streamer area in Origami King and they always give the boss a moniker, but with the way the font is rendered, "the Shifty Sticker" almost looked like something else since you almost couldn't see the crook on that F...!

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non-final dungeons in any game aren't really that exciting, huh
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SeabassDebeste posted...

non-final dungeons in any game aren't really that exciting, huh

well the generic dungeon themes tend to be pretty standard

the special dungeon themes are where it's at and there are a lot of good ones there outside of final dungeons

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Honestly I could probably do like a top 5 list of all these categories just from FF14.

Hmm.

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LeonhartFour posted...

Man, this is a good choice. Might even top Sunleth Waterscape as a cheating answer since I really only consider the Cloister of Trials as "dungeons" in FFX, whether that's fair or not.

I actually went back in the topic to pull up the chart that shows what each day is before I posted and there's no "area theme" or whatever, so similar to that loophole you provided me for Sprouting yesterday, I feel like it should count here because where else would it go?

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Yeah, I was noticing that, too. It's a big oversight on their part!

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Purple Streamer cleared in Origami King! Boss wasn't too tough, and it was a really good area overall. Only one streamer left!

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Oh man, youre gonna pass me in Origami King soon

I should really finish it!

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Dragon Ball Z Episode 55 complete!

Vegeta steals the Dragon Balls using the oldest trick in the book.

Also Piccolo has lost a step if he's letting Yamcha land a punch on him, even in a 3-on-1 match.

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Huh, just found out our neighbor got arrested for violating a restraining order

Good to know

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Overworld theme, FF6 Terra and FF13-2 Historia Crux are my first thoughts. But I kind of want to give it to FFT's map theme. I don't think it's my favorite, but it's so catchy.

Dungeon theme, FFMQ says hi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJQK0ZvSgj0
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There's no question for best dungeon theme

https://youtu.be/NBIRYjP1NNM

But there are so many good ones.

Holminster Switch/Grand Cosmos
Qitana Ravel
Doma Castle
Aetherochemical Research Facility
Sohr Kai
Amaurot
The Burn
Baelsar's Wall
The Fractal Continuum


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i don't see how the castle doesn't win best final dungeon!

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pjbasis posted...

i don't see how the castle doesn't win best final dungeon!

It's really good, as most final dungeon themes are, but it's never been my favorite.

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Day 9: Best Battle Theme
Final Fantasy XIII - Blinded by Light
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfu0XBf8kmk

Since tomorrow is boss theme, I assume this is meant to just be normal battle themes. This is a tough call because I really like IV, VII, IX, and X's as well, but I feel like XIII's hits the highest highs. The main part of the song is just too good.

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My top 2 are pretty easily Blinded by Light and this one in some order, so I guess I'll default to posting the other one so that I get something different

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jho-peCAKs
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I was just thinking about this in anticipation, lol.

I'll take Final Fantasy VII - Fighting / Those Who Fight / Let the Battles Begin with shoutouts to Blinded By Light and FFX as well.

Edit: Oh, if Man With the Machine Gun counts that definitely gets put on the HM list as well. I was treating Don't Be Afraid as the only qualified FFVIII rep but that would leave MwtMG in another weird space.

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Oh yeah, I always forget Man with the Machine Gun in these discussions because I just default to Don't Be Afraid for FFVIII and it slips my mind it has two viable options!

I'd still pick Blinded by Light, but it's definitely in consideration.

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Battle 1 from FF9 is my favorite. Blinded by Light, Those Who Fight and FF13-2s regular battle theme get honorable mentions.

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I'll pick FF1's. Just wonderfully iconic.
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Utawarerumono MoD: Feels endgame-y now. Like a bunch of "this is the final battle" type speeches. LOL at Kuon basically being on the same page as me for Yamato v Tuskur. "Yo, don't get it twisted, I'm here to keep you guys from getting slaughtered."

The whodunnit around the Mikado's death is... actually quite compelling to me unless I'm missing something obvious. Raiko came off as the most obvious suspect because he was shown to basically be prepping for his moves after the Mikado dies... but he seem genuinely taken by surprise that he got locked out of the capital by Vurai and Woshis. Woshis... is my best current suspect in that all his "wait this could be a frame" type comments were pretty much all made in earshot (and overheard) by people like Vurai who then acted on it so he could be chessmastering this... but it would seem to clash with his explanation to Raiko that he wants to avoid a power struggle to basically cause one by being the culprit. Vurai is running a coup but was too loyal and too dumb to have done it. ...There's that one Pillar General who we haven't seen in a while whose thing was that he was basically a jack of all trades I guess. Mikazuchi has also been absent but he doesn't strike me as a mastermind. Like if this turns out to be Raiko and he just didn't anticipate Vurai would start a power grab before he got back to Yamato then maybe he ordered Mikazuchi to do the poisoning? I was suspecting Entua who is hiding her identity while tagging along with Haku right now as playing the long game for revenge... but she's been too helpful so far I think? Also her account of basically being in a trance matches whatever the hell was done to Anju but if she's the mastermind she could just be lying. Woshis appointed her to Anju so I feel this points towards him some more but yeah. Then there's the fact that Tuskur knew pretty quickly it happened, but they have some weird com network over there so it's plausible Karalau and Touka relayed it over. They actually have a way in to the Palace but this isn't their style. ...Honestly, if the Mikado hadn't told Haku he planned to stick around a while longer until Anju was ready to take over I'd almost suspect this was some galaxy brain play on his and Honoka's part and all part of the plan somehow but...

I'm currently about to fight Vurai at Anju's room so we can rescue her so hopefully I get some answers to the mystery soon.

Edit: Oh, right, the detail most bothering me is Entua not remembering how she got to the Inn to tell Haku and the others the situation. She compares it to the trance that got her to implicate Oshtor but also says she's come on behalf of Honoka. If true, that would suggest Honoka is the one with the mind-altering agent... which would make Honoka the chief suspect. But since I think her placement as Anju's attendant by Woshis is suspicious af it makes more sense to me that it's Woshis who is behind it and has tricked Entua into thinking she's acting on Honoka's orders. Though that mans Woshis has directed Haku's party into the Palace which is ??? Trying to get them killed? Trying to get Vurai killed? Still wouldn't solve why he killed the Mikado either... unless the entire poison story is a lie because as far as I know that explanation came from him and maybe he's just trying to manipulate a natural causes death to get rid of certain people like Vurai, Oshtor, Haku, etc. to clear the way?

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All right, let's play some Cold Steel IV Act 3!

The next chapter begins with everyone pondering the implications of everything they just witnessed. If anything, this has (cold) steeled Rean's resolve to go through all these Rivalries. Although now that I think about it, if Dreichels was known as the Lionhearted Emperor and Osborne is Dreichels reincarnated, wouldn't that make Rean the Lionhearted one since he literally has Osborne's heart inside him? We've learned that the Palatinate Knight (Rutger) is at the Draco Shrine in Sutherland, and the Argent Knight (Arianrhod) is at the Stella Shrine in Crossbell. We decide to face off with Rutger first since he's closer. Turns out Towa wants to tag along for this part, but we don't have any required party members for this part for once. It sounds like we aren't actually fighting Rutger today, which is why Fie isn't mandatory, I'm guessing. Anyway, the randomizer gives us Laura, Emma, Gaius, Kurt, and Tita. Not bad.

Towa's Brave Order will be available to us now that she's traveling with us, and we can use Celine's Brave Order when Emma's in the party, too, so that's helpful. We can visit Ordis again now as well. Now we've got some new sidequests to do, as well as some bonding points to spend. Our options are Sara, Musse, Gaius, Towa, Laura, Kurt, Alfin, and Celine. The natural omission is Celine, but we'll see! The requests are from Kaela, Munk, and an extermination request for Lake Gala's very own Gallie! Wasn't expecting that to show up just as a sidequest. We've also got an optional sidequest from Valerie to help Louise and Tatiana to search for some communications "noise."

Might as well go ahead and do the bonding events I'm sure I want to do, so we'll start with Sara. She wants to try to visit her adoptive father's grave again, hopefully with fewer zombies this time. Governor Regnitz gave us the flag from the naval fortress to lay on his grave. They decide to...burn the flag and it makes all the black Pleroma Grass disappear. All right then. There honestly wasn't much to this scene, but we maxed out the bond, got our second heart, and got a new profile entry, so I guess it all worked out!

Looks like we can do training exercises now. The level 1 fights are pretty easy, as expected. Actually, looking at it, Celine's profile is already maxed out, so I don't have anything to worry about with her. I guess I can just move on to using bond points on everyone else! So next up is Gaius. They decide to pay a visit to Bardias. They have a sparring match that ends in a draw, so they decide to have a joust with horses, which Bardias wins handily. Gaius realizes he had become so focused on becoming a member of the Gralsritter that he'd lost sight of who he was as a citizen of Nord. He challenges Bardias to a rematch and holds his own this time. Pretty good scene, and we get a new profile entry!

Alfin received a letter with the seal of the royal family calling her out to the Heimdallr field exercise camp. My curiosity is piqued by what this could be. My guess is that it's from Cedric, and I was right. He wants Alfin to leave the Courageous II and go into hiding with their mother so she can be safe. He doesn't think she can make any real impact by being on the frontlines because there's nothing she's doing that can't be done by someone just as capable, if not more so. Cedric appeals to Rean's big brother instincts, and he can't exactly refute him. Alfin acknowledges that she's felt powerless lately, but most of all for letting Cedric become what he is now. He cares more about power than he does about his own family. With that, Cedric leaves in frustration and Alfin is emotionally spent. Good scene, and that maxes out Alfin for me as well!

Next up, Kurt has a letter of his own from Mueller. There are some family matters he asked him to take care of, so we head to Parm. Mueller is waiting for us at the family training hall. It turns out he found Roland Vander's other twin sword. Mueller is willing to let him have it if we can beat him in battle. He sees the relationship between Rean and Kurt as similar to the one between Dreichels and Roland Vander, but Mueller isn't going to let his brother die young. Unfortunately, we don't actually get to fight him, but we prevail nonetheless. I do wonder if this scene is different if you don't go with Kurt to find the first sword. Regardless, we can now change the appearance of his swords in the menu, like with Jusis, so that's cool.

Oh hey, I can play Pom Party against Tita now. It takes a couple of tries, but I beat her. Anyway, moving on to Laura, she wants to finish up her trying on Bryonia Island in case the time comes when we have to fight her father. Shortly after arriving, we somehow trigger the arrival of the thing we fought in the Old Schoolhouse. They think the shell of the Sept-Terrion in some way activated it. Since we're in some alternate dimension, we can't summon Valimar or the other Class VII members, so Rean and Laura have to fend it off themselves. Unfortunately, this also mostly done offscreen, although we do get some barebones presentations of their S-Crafts. Afterwards, Laura confesses her love for Rean, and I'm thinking someone on the staff was a big Rean/Laura shipper and I'm glad this person exists.

Huh, I just noticed that even with an extra bond point, I've got three to choose from between Towa, Musse, and Celine! Unless there's a way to get two extra bond points this time around. Then I trigger a sidequest with Maya where she confronts her father. Turns out agreeing to help this time means going straight into it! He challenges her to a contest of marksmanship with a sniper and a spotter. Rean will be Maya's spotter, and naturally, Lechter's just hanging around to be the spotter for her dad. Fortunately, it's just a series of three choices.

More later.

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CS4: Yeah, in Act 3 you have two more bond events than points so it's indeed two people who get left behind now instead of one.

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Augh if only I had known

Celine's and Towa's both seem interesting, although I'm not sure I'd drop the ones I've chosen so far! This has been a good batch.

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Yup

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My top 3 were Cold Steel IV, Ace Attorney Trilogy, and Final Fantasy VII Remake.

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https://geofront.esterior.net/2021/01/29/azure-editing-finished-test-underway-other-geofront-news/

oh man they're hoping to be done with the Azure fan translation by next month

hype

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