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

(+) Yeah! (+)

Avatars mean Vlado has won

Tragic day for all of us

---

it got rolled back

rip avatars

---

a victorious day for all of us

---

Okay, that was a really clever use of a monster extermination request in Azure to establish a new character (well, "new" to this game, not to me...!)

Also, I'm really enjoying Wazy's contributions to the SSS already. He's fun but he's also really imaginative and clever with his suggestions.

---

The Mana Sword posted...

it got rolled back

rip avatars

Seems like i dodged a bullet by having a horrible sleep schedule...!

---

well it'll probably be back so you'll still get to experience it eventually...!

---

Oh no

---

Will it? His message sounded like he's scrapping it entirely and finding a way to do game merge with the existing look.
---

I didn't get the sense that it was going to be scrapped from Allen's post. There were just too many problems that required more than a simple fix, so they had to roll it back.

---

I saw it for a few minutes back when it rolled out and now it's gone so I'm just going to pretend it was a hallucination.

Edit: Reading the topic about it and the issues it had... oh boy...

---

Dragon Ball Z Episode 118 complete!

What is up with Bulma's hair?

Vegeta definitely has a new VA, or he's playing him differently.

Wait, the Frieza arc isn't over yet? And his dad is King Cold?!

---

Leonhart4 posted...

What is up with Bulma's hair?

Vegeta definitely has a new VA, or he's playing him differently.

bulma's hair in this saga is how i was introduced to her lmao

did vegeta go from kinda high pitched raspy-sounding to deep and constipated?
---

SeabassDebeste posted...

did vegeta go from kinda high pitched raspy-sounding to deep and constipated?

The opposite!

---

Its the same VA, the timeline is just a little odd because Funimation actually redid the Saiyan saga and half the Namek Saga after DBZs run ended.

So most of what you watched was actually newer than what youre about to from a VA standpoint. If that makes sense.


---

Leonhart4 posted...

Dragon Ball Z Episode 118 complete!

What is up with Bulma's hair?

Vegeta definitely has a new VA, or he's playing him differently.

Wait, the Frieza arc isn't over yet? And his dad is King Cold?!

Also back in 7th grade before this aired I remember a friend telling me about this when it was only in Japan at the time and I was like no way thats too stupid

---

And he has a movie brother named Cooler.

---

And an ancient ancestor named Chilled

---

We finally got to play a bit of Mass Effect again tonight and we successfully recruited Liara.

---

F/GO: Been playing Lostbelt 4 since it released today. Just finished Section 7. If doggo had survived until the end I would have said Proper Human History had a good run and we should leave the Lostbelt in place but now that Arjuna erased doggo for being "defective" and took away everyone's memories of him? We're burning this Lostbelt to the ground. More seriously, Pepe is a cool character and it's super interesting and fun to basically have an ally Crypter with the party.

---

In Trails to Azure, it feels like Elie knows every character from other games that we happen to run into, as her and Ries are apparently friends from her time in Arteria. Also, shouldn't Lloyd recognize Ries from the other day? She doesn't look THAT different, and he usually has an eye for details.

---

you're talking about the guy who didn't notice his co-worker had the same last name as the mayor

---

...fair point

---

My memory was that Lloyd only saw Kevin and that Ries only showed up after Lloyd and others had left for Crossbell
---

Maybe that's how it happened. For some reason, I thought she showed up and that's what prompted Lloyd to leave. Either way, no big deal. Just thought it was odd, but I could just be wrong!

---

Hmmm...the overwhelmingly positive reception to Outer Wilds in that VG story ranking topic is making me curious about it.

---

i didn't check that topic, but a lot of people responded that OW was the last game that "blew their mind" - so i've got my eye out for whenever it releases on the switch
---

It's an extremely neat game! One of the most creative + well done games I've ever seen.
---

Did some planet exploration in Mass Effect tonight. Can tell she's starting to get more comfortable with how the game works, so that's nice.

In Trails to Azure, I enjoyed the scene between Wazy and Wald, and the curbstomp fight was cool. I guess this would explain why the gangs aren't really around in CS3 and 4!

---

well it looks like Outer Wilds is 15 bucks on PSN right now so might as well grab it

---

13 Sentinels: Played more of Shinonome's route, then worked on Kisaragi, Ogata, and Miura.

Shinonome: The creepy investigation elements here continue to shine. Kisaragi catches up with Shinonome and we flashback-forward to her failed attempt to shoot Sekigahara with the unreveal that Sekigahara is innocent and the sorta-reveal that he's a childhood friend of Shinonome's (I say sorta because back in Sekigahara's part he clearly had a close connection with her.) Then Shinonome almost gets to the bottom of the drug situation when she heads to the nurse's office for more pills but passes out while Morimura is damn near taunting her. Finally, we see when Shinonome and Izumi first met in 2064.

Kisaragi: Kisaragi showing no tact while laughing at the 80s was pretty funny lol. Then they got surprise warped into the ruined 2024 and the wild ride began. Immediately we got to see their side of how they ended up on the ground when Shinonome confronted Sekighara there. Headed to Kisaragi's house and saw a less funny version of her tactlessness when she says to Megumi if they should give up on Izumi on account of the amnesia. Finally, the real trip begins when she and Ogata visit the dead kaiju and learn that they were man-made. Which makes sense between all the pieces of info so far.

Ogata: Oh boy, this was a short section relatively speaking but man was it compelling. Ogata is stuck in like a 30 minute loop to find a key before the kaiju invade. Convincing Kisaragi to leave the station with him is a dead end so back at the station we find Kurabe, Fuyusaka, and Okino. Couldn't figure out a way to find Kurabe (later on this makes some narrative sense) so I follow the latter two onto the train where shit gets real. kid!Fuyusaka morphing into normal Fuyusaka was shock enough but then when she cycled through the two Morimuras and shot Ogata was the most "oh my god" moment so far I think. Pretty damn sure Ogata's contact who is putting him through the loops is Okino and it has not escaped my notice that he got on that train and then was nowhere to be found once aboard. Narratively, I'm assuming we couldn't follow Kurabe before because he's the one with the key and we had to see this bit first.

Miura: Only did the prologue here but this quickly intersected with Minami's bit followed immediately by the kaiju attacking. Huh... they jumped 1985... that's interesting. I mean, we know they come for it in the end but I wasn't expecting that. lmao at Miura blaming it on the US. In context it makes sense but it's just kinda funny seeing it played out this way.

Overall: God, Morimura is so confusing. Everything with Shinonome has her seeming sinister as hell and then she shoots Ogata. ...But if we can take her words there at face value it sounds like she's trying to help and that Ogata was a sleeper agent for the kaiju. Do we have a new contender for 426? Comes off more as a pawn, but there definitely seem to be implications that future!Ogata may have been sus. Okino... gonna put him down as a null tell for this batch. Is he trying to get the key to undo Morimura's patch because he's 426 and the Sentinels are in the way? Or is he trying to help?

---

Loved Ogata's route. Hooked me right away like it did for you, too. And yeah, Morimura's motives are confusing as heck. I could never tell if the game wanted me to think she was a good guy or a bad guy!

---

I wasn't that into Ogata's route, but I think that's partly because I saved it for close to last and had solved most of the mysteries by then. Plus, doing it all at once might've made it lose some impact.
---

In Azure, Lloyd discusses how we can't barge into people's houses whenever we want for no reason with no sense of irony whatsoever.

I do like how they're using this opening chapter to get you used to what's different from Zero, even small things like NPCs who are in different locations now.

---

Took a detour to Rosenberg Studio in Azure and got a cool scene. I'm guessing this is the Professor Novartis they talked about in Cold Steel so much, and I instinctively disliked him immediately!

---

Leonhart4 posted...

Took a detour to Rosenberg Studio in Azure and got a cool scene. I'm guessing this is the Professor Novartis they talked about in Cold Steel so much, and I instinctively disliked him immediately!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Noel being like, "They don't seem that dangerous," and Wazy in his mind, thinking, "My dear, you have a long way to go." Seriously, Wazy has been great. I've been pleasantly surprised by him thus far.

---

Trails to Azure Chapter 1 complete!

It's interesting to see these things play out from the perspective of already having played Cold Steel. The setup to the mine dungeon was cool, and then Randy swooping in at the last minute to save the day was great, too. It was a bit of a surprise to see the Red Constellation take over the Revache compound over Heiyue.

Also, Campanella officially declares the beginning of the Phantasmal Blaze Plan, and Novartis keeps using terms that I'm not sure if Cold Steel defined at some point or not, like the Astral Code!

Now it's time for something I've been waiting for since Cold Steel 1: The trade conference! Aw yeah.

---

Sounds like the Falcons are trading Julio Jones to the Titans. Big move for us.

---

13 Sentinels: Miura, Minami, Sekigahara, Kurabe was the lineup. With Minami onward being the first unlocks of the playthrough (Minami's story has been unlockable for a while but I treated opening the lock as a "Part 2" so I wanted to get through all the "Part 1"s before opening it.)

Miura: So, I feel like the biggest question about Miura's story is the whole 2188 Space Station scenes. Also not sure why he's so fixated on the dent in that one pillar at Kurabe's house not being there. From his perspective the house burned down so why is he not considering the plausible theory that Tamao just had it rebuilt the same way it originally was... and therefore wouldn't have the dent? Unless something happened to her and he knows that at this point.

Minami: You know, I've gone this whole time thinking that Minami's whole "BJ is an alien" shtick was just her in her own world but I am now having to consider that BJ actually lied by omission or something and didn't just go "I am a robot, jeez can't you tell?" Anyway, her side of the bathroom fight was really tense and not how I expected that to have played out. Also, BJ dropping bombs at the end there with his, "Pretty sure this isn't Earth. Also pretty sure we're way past 2188 btw" reveals. Will revisit this in my overall thoughts.

Sekigahara: Had some crazy moments here. Technically I did this branch later but I'll start with the whole Okino "I cheated memory loss by basically turning myself into an AI suck it meatbags" thing and Sekigahara having his memories copied by a similar process. But the real "oh snap" was when he tailed Megumi back to the Kurabe house and my boy Fluffy made a reappearance after what felt like forever. Highly sus at his use of "game" for all this I am 100% not ruling out meta. Then the flashback where the Sentinel AI claims to be Miura and casts suspicion at Morimura.

Kurabe: Definitely the star of the session. One thing I think this game has absolutely nailed on a level that I can probably count other games I've played having done on one hand combined is psychological tension/horror. I haven't spent any time talking about him, but Shiba was always crazy suspicious and a top contender for villain. Not just because the whole intro bit but he's always been waaay "off." And boy did this show why. The reveal of who/what he is is great and goddamn when I was taking my time exploring the hallway for examine points and then listening to all the Thought Space prompts only for him to pop out and immediately bad end Kurabe was something else. Over at Shinonome and she definitely thinks Shiba is 426 and... she may be right, but I'm not sold yet.

After this I had to fight my first battle since the tutorial stuff. ...And now I have enough Mystery Points to do more story so lol. Stopped here though.

Overall: Okay, so two big picture thoughts here. I'll start with my current 426 thoughts. Shinonome thinks it's Kurabe/Shiba now and I don't blame her. Shiba is 100% not behaving like the Juro Izumi we see most other characters remember. But he introduces himself as 48Q and I like... I'm willing to believe that kinda? It sounds like one of those simulated personalities we see Okino talk about in the other sections, especially how they "help you make decisions but ultimately it's up to you" because that definitely seems to describe the Kurabe/Shiba relationship pre-reveal. I'm more willing to believe it got infected or maybe possessed than being the OG 426. Though if possessed then maybe it makes no difference now. Anyway, Shinonome accuses him based on the 16 year jump... but once again... it's my guy Okino who was working the controls there so I feel like he's still the one made suspicious by that!

Anyway, second thought is related the 2188 stuff. I'd been tossing this theory in my head for about a day and ironically Okino was about to voice it in the above scene but combine this with what BJ was speculating and I think it almost fits. If this is really a distant future like say 3XXX or whatever, I feel this could almost be explained as a terraform gone nuts where for whatever reason they built different districts as different time periods (idk for history nerds/fans kinda like the whole Downton Abbey-style fandoms for that time period) and it's only the appearance of time travel but really they're just jumping to different spots of the terraform project. That's why they're called Sectors, that's how it was drawn up in the blueprints. The sticking point for me is that Ogata seems to genuinely be in some kind of time loop but his situation is absolutely above and beyond unique to everyone else in that regard.

---

Minami sitting in that stall hearing the fighting outside is such a well done scene.

It's so cool reading theories as people slowly put it all together. What a wild game.

---

Yeah, I'm sure we can all have a laugh at how crazy off I am on some of these but it's fun trying to formulate these in close to real-time.

F/GO: Lostbelt 4 beated. Justice for doggo achieved. Only the last three fights proved a bit troublesome, everything else I was literally fielding Bond and QP CEs lol. Limbo and Arjuna got me once, then Final Arjuna took 3 tries (2nd try would have won if I didn't fall 2000 HP short of breaking his 2nd Bar at a critical moment. 70% crit chance miss troll) and then the Tree fight got me once too.

---

Dragon Ball Z Episode 119 complete!

Oh hey, it's the next mysterious new character. He doesn't give his name here, but it lists him in the credits as Trunks. I recognize the name, but I had no clue what he looked like until now.

---

aw yeah here we go
---

The Office (British version) Season 2 Episode 1 complete!

Man, nothing ever seems to go right for Tim, no matter how he tries to play it.

---

Castlevania Season 4 Episode 1 complete!

I kept forgetting this came out already! Anyway, I enjoyed the quick progression of Trevor and Sypha's adventures to get to where they are now.

Also, apparently he's THE Alucard now.

---

Whew, my wife finished exploring all the planets and doing all the sidequests we can do for now in Mass Effect, so now it's time to revisit the Citadel and then tackle Noveria/Feros.

---

Made it to the Gold Saucer!

I didnt realize until recently that this was from VII... Ive spent a ton of time in XIVs version!

---

wait are you actually playing ff7 for the first time

I assume you were just doing a replay

---

He's tried to play it before and not gotten far.

Speaking of, it's almost time for Episode Yuffie.

---

If only I could find a PS5!!

---

13 Sentinels: Takamiya, Gouto, Kurabe, Fuyusaka, and Yakushiji today.

Takamiya: Back to the investigation and whoops caught by Gouto and Shinonome at the factory. Awkward. Kinda funny that they apparently just let her go again but it pays off when ace detective Takamiya catches 426 like a boss. But that was an interesting conversation she/he/it (Shinonome called it an AI at one point, I think?) had with Morimura before it jumped off the bridge!

Gouto: Okay, lol, this seems like the rapid-fire answer portion of the story. Not surprised that after the prologue he had what looks to be by far the steepest unlock requirement after all the reveals just the prologue had. Sounds like my question of how Fuyusaka and Morimura are co-existing in multiple forms this far back when Morimura appears to be native to 2089 got its answer - Clones and nanomachine memory tech from 2188. Also future 2188 Gouto being the CEO of Shikishima when I just kinda assumed future Ogata had climbed to that role!

Kurabe: The Mystery Files had kind of cleared up ambiguity on 426 before but then this one made it even more obvious. 426's path has been ??? -> Kisaragi Android -> "Aiba"/Tamao android -> Kyuta Shiba/Juro Kurabe. Also apparently Kisaragi has been meeting with Okino? Looking forward to that.

Fuyusaka: Lots of flashbacks across Morimura's life. The bridge showdown with Izumi being the most interesting. Also when she confessed to Sekigahara his response about being an assassin from the future ordered to kill her confirms my technically-a-suspicion-but-I-figured-had-to-be-right call that the "other person" on the line that future!Gouto contracted to kill Morimura was indeed Sekigahara.

Then I had to do another battle, but it gave me a whopping total of 6 Mystery Points to spend so I was able to unlock Yakushiji and Kisaragi on top of Amiguchi who just needed the fight itself cleared. Haven't played as Yakushiji and Amaguchi in a while and the bit with Kurabe above suggesting Kisaragi and Okino are meeting up makes this a pretty good lineup to me!

Yakushiji: I check up on Yakushiji and Fluffy first. Miura got got but Amiguchi had one of the stranger reactions to getting shot by auto-summoning a Sentinel. pretty good counter-ability i must say. Also Kurabe saw the whole thing which is kinda awkward. Good thing my pal Fluffy says he can fix this. Next time I'll see what other wacky adventures these two get up to.

Overall: Okay, so the "who" of 426 is mostly solved (well not exactly there's some lingering questions for me about that ??? origin I laid out earlier) so I've moved on to the "why." Piecing together the conversations when the Tamao Android got cornered along with Fuyusaka's dream of Morimura shooting older!Izumi I'm currently working with something like this - 426 might actually be the good guy here? It sounds like there's some gambit pileup here between some of the 2188 Shikishima projects. Working on the tentative assumption that Juro Izumi is 426 I think the conflict broke out when Morimura's faction decided to sabotage the interstellar project. It sounds like her motive is to "escape" with Izumi but doing so will sacrifice 15 lives (I assume the core cast + idk Okino and maybe Morimura's clones?) I think this definitely ties into the bit between Ida and Morimura Sekigahara heard way back when about "closing the loop." Meanwhile, Izumi/426 isn't down for that. Shinonome has to play a role here too I think given that recording she sent about Ida lying to her, giving up on humanity, and sabotaging the terraforming project. Argh, I feel like I'm circling in on some of the core mysteries but can't quite piece them together yet. Or maybe I'm comically off-base!

---