Poll of the Day > Anime, Manga, VN, JRPG, Related Things Discussion Topic C

(+) Yeah! (+)

keyblader1985 posted...

I've been watching Hajime no Ippo on and off. I've heard it was very similar to Kenichi in spirit (wholesome novice protagonist, realistic depiction of martial arts, etc.), which is one of my favorite shounen. That Ippo/Miyata rematch was intense; Miyata's counter was one of the most brutal attacks I've seen.

The anime is trash. Read the manga instead. The anime cut out so much character development.

Ended up watching Josee, the Tiger and the Fish tonight. Thanks for the recommendation. Enjoyed it.

Revelation34 posted...

The anime cut out so much character development.

That just describes anime adaptations in general. The anime is still a solid watch.

Xenoblade's third wave of DLC has been out for a few days now and gauntlet mode is surprisingly pretty great. It's really neat how an entire new meta has sprung up, heroes that are shit outside of gauntlet are suddenly very good inside of it (Riki&Manana being a big one). New class is a lot stronger than it seems, you can play it like a signifer with huge healing and crit buffs.

but who told them about RNG accessory crafting as an endgame grind

Judgmenl posted...

Ended up watching Josee, the Tiger and the Fish tonight. Thanks for the recommendation. Enjoyed it.

hell yeah it's the only anime movie I've ever liked enough to rewatch

YoukaiSlayer posted...

That just describes anime adaptations in general. The anime is still a solid watch.

Did they also show plot during the last episode's ED?

agesboy posted...

Xenoblade's third wave of DLC has been out for a few days now and gauntlet mode is surprisingly pretty great. It's really neat how an entire new meta has sprung up, heroes that are s*** outside of gauntlet are suddenly very good inside of it (Riki&Manana being a big one). New class is a lot stronger than it seems, you can play it like a signifer with huge healing and crit buffs.

but who told them about RNG accessory crafting as an endgame grind

I should really pick it up. I'm about ready for a NG+ playthrough, and adding the DLC to that would just make sense.

Apparently, the download for wave 3 includes campsite and cutscene names for the wave 4 DLC, which have been datamined and leaked, so I'm just avoiding pretty much all Xenoblade discourse between now and the wave 4 launch.

The general direction of wave 4 is pretty easy to guess from the trailer they recently released. Way more excited for this than I was for Torna, which I still haven't finished.

The new hero requires chapter 5 by the way so you won't be able to get her for a while (chapter 3 is required for the older DLC hero). Levels scale to 30/50/70 for gauntlet mode so you can definitely try that out before the end of the game. Pretty decent renewable source of rare stuff like gold nopon coins and those shards you find rarely in the overworld or from smashing NMs.

I've managed to get precisely halfway through hard pro gauntlet (the hardest tier lasting 140 stages) and it gets pretty challenging even doing pretty insane damage.

agesboy posted...

The new hero requires chapter 5 by the way so you won't be able to get her for a while (chapter 3 is required for the older DLC hero).

Yeah, I know. I figure NG+ will go pretty quickly, depending on how many sidequests I decide to do on the way, and encountering them in their original context just strikes me as being better than going back to them from endgame.

Of course, I just started Nier Automata, so it'll probably be a while before I get back to Xenoblade anyway.

Still on the 'wait until all dlc drops before getting it' train for Xeno 3.

Tried to do a full media blackout for the game but I just couldn't resist. Also, the directs.

The latest update is the final additional content the main game will get. The next bit is a standalone expansion with probably different mechanics than the main game, if 2's Torna or 1's Future Connected is any indicator.

It's probably gonna be about ten months before it's released. Succumb and play 3 pls

Ended up watching the Takagi-san film on my day off today. Basically felt like 3 episodes strung together and the ending was very unexpected. Hopefully the manga is not ending soon and we get a season 4 that wraps up the rest of the story. If it does, I'm not sure if there's any other modern romance manga to be adapted into that many episodes besides maybe 3-gatsu no lion (which really needs another season).

Only films that are out that I want to watch are the Yuru Camp film (not really all that interested) and Suzume (which is taking forever to get a translation).

Finally reading some 3-gatsu no lion again, onto volume 2 and so much of this story is about finding a place where Rei can belong. All of his effort has been put into Shogi purely to be accepted by his peers and his step-father, and his skill purely comes from his raw drive to success. It's such a great story and I'm happy reading it this time. Hopefully the 100 chapters that the anime doesn't cover are as good as the 100 chapters the anime covers.

agesboy posted...

It's probably gonna be about ten months before it's released. Succumb and play 3 pls

I saw new copies floating around for like $45 so I might just give it a go.

T0ffee posted...

Still on the 'wait until all dlc drops before getting it' train for Xeno 3.

All the DLC that affects the core game has now been released. The final wave is a separate story in the same vein as Future Connected or Torna, so barring minor patches/updates that are hard to predict, saying that all the DLC has dropped now is accurate enough that you should go for it.

To be fair the upcoming DLC is probably gonna answer a bunch of questions that the base game left open, so I can see people still wanting to wait

but

its the bestest game ever pls play it asap...

Xeno 3 copy is coming by Friday at the earliest.

Still kinda wished that level changing would have been added in new game through a patch.

yeah, that's absolutely everyone's biggest beef with the game on a mechanical level

didn't affect me because I'm a lazy loser who rushes endgame and then does side content, but this game has an abhorrent amount of side content. even if you're not a completionist, it's easy to be overlevelled

And I'm exactly the type of person who finishes all the available sidequests in an area before moving on.

I can already see myself just skipping enemies and not engaging with the battle system as much which might bring down the whole playing experience.

Hopefully it won't have to come to that but time will tell.

Ultimately, it's really not hard to powerlevel classes postgame, even if you barely levelled them at all going through, and you'll always have at least one character able to access each new class, so it's not like the game will be ruined by not trying to keep your level low enough to maximize CP gains. You just won't get to go through as many classes as you could by skipping most sidequests, which is unfortunate because the class system is really good for keeping the battle system fresh and varied.

It's also not at all necessary to actively avoid fighting to keep your level low, nor to avoid every single sidequest. You're just going to run into problems if you try to do every quest (though even then, there are still plenty of higher-levelled targets around that can give you CP, just not the story-required ones). It's an issue that probably shouldn't be there (just removing the level-based adjustment on CP would fix pretty much the whole problem), but it's not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. I'd recommend putting off non-hero sidequests that seem like they're going to be more involved and not making a habit of going back to each area after completing new chapters to look for new sidequests (each area's sidequest list expands steadily throughout the game), and never using bonus exp to level up, but otherwise you shouldn't have to worry too much about it.

Oh hey my copy came a day early!

Just gonna pick up an eshop card for the expansion pass on my way home and I'll start playing tonight.

Meanwhile, I only recently got my hands on a copy of Xenoblade Chronicles 2. I had to buy the case and the game separately. Not even going to try for a physical copy of Torna.

T0ffee posted...

Oh hey my copy came a day early!

Just gonna pick up an eshop card for the expansion pass on my way home and I'll start playing tonight.

Incoming wild ride.

Going at a good pace. Started and finished volume 3 of 3-gatsu no lion today (also chapter 200 came out today). I am impressed i remember as much of this plot as I do and I honestly can't wait to re-experience some of the stuff that's going to be in a couple of volumes.

Played quite a bit of Xeno 3.

Just got the second hero.

I can already see that fully maxing out the classes before postgame is gonna be a chore.

All the enemies around where I am right now are around level 15-20, and I'm already at 23.

Everyone has at least 3 classes mastered already, but now the growth is slowing down since they're in their C and D ranked classes.

Everything else has been great though. The game runs great, the music is great, the environments are great, just greatness all around.

Still not sure how to optimize combat arts and chain attacks yet, but I hope it'll get easier with time.

As for the story side, the only gripe I have is that the villians are almost cartoonishly evil. I'm having a hard time believing that Nia and Melia would allow these people to work for them, if those queens really are them.

T0ffee posted...

I can already see that fully maxing out the classes before postgame is gonna be a chore.

Yeah, don't do that. If nothing else, there are actually two post-game exclusive classes, so you actually can't max everything out before then. Beyond that, though, the absolute best way to grind CP (like rank 1-20 in five minutes) requires you to de-level everyone to maximize their gains and kill a level 80ish enemy repeatedly, which you can't do until beating the game. There is an alternative that uses level 90+ enemies and doesn't require quite as much de-leveling, but it still goes much, much faster after postgame.

That said, you can work your way through a good chunk of the classes on your way through the game if you don't end up overlevelled. Pretty much just play as whatever interests you/you have fun with and don't get too stuck on the fact that you won't max out all of them.

in the postgame, you max out classes in like, 5-15 mins (unless they are noah's classes that aren't attacker. but its fine, he's not special)

yolo the msq

https://twitter.com/bokuyaba_anime/status/1630402660737187841
New PV for Bokuyaba.
Also the OP is by Yorushika which is hype af.

This topic and the latest vinland saga episode reminded me of what has surprisingly stuck with me the most from xenoblade 3, and it's the potato farming side quest. I think it's legitimately one of the best side quests in video games, even though it's not very fun to play through. Going through so much effort, and having it amount to nothing, and still endeavoring to do it all over again just stuck with me. They really captured that feeling of just wanting to give up and not think about it anymore. Man I wish the game had a different ending. I wish I could like it so much, but everything I love about the game only makes me hate the ending that much more.

As much as potato quest gets memed pretty hard, it really was spectacular, and one of the best-executed examples of the game's core themes. Gameplay-wise, it wasn't the best, but feasting on those spuds after it was all said and done was a goddamn triumph.

Brb, crying over video game potatoes.

It's honestly kinda incredible how almost every single side story loops back around to the main themes of the game, somehow.

It helps that one of the main themes of the game is "free everybody so they can do what they want," which leaves the door wide open for sidequests amounting to "how do we accomplish what we want now that we're free?". That's a very open-ended concept with massive potential for variation based on the personalities, cultures, and situations of the various colonies, and really lends itself to sidequests that feel like they make a genuine difference.

Not really sure what to watch lately, so I rewatched Your Lie in April, and Mushoku Tensei. Also watched the second season of Promised Neverland and can see why it's rated poorly on mal. No idea why they decided to speedrun the rest of the story. What is there is at least decent though, but it's still a big letdown to see the route they went.

Also started on Xeno 3. Seems more like the first than the second one so far. I'm glad the affinity chart is back. I dunno why, but I really like that feature and wish more games had it. Would be really nice in something like Elder Scrolls imo.

Since I don't really have anything to watch, I'm going to rewatch Hikaru no Go next. Been quite some time since I rewatched it.

I really should get around to finishing the Promised Neverland manga. That and Seven Deadly Sins.

Xeno 3's affinity chart is really neat, even if it doesn't really have a gameplay purpose (outside of figuring out which goddamn travelling nopons you've missed). There's even a faction affinity chart!

dragon504 posted...

Seems more like the first than the second one so far.

It is. Generally a darker tone (there's a very strong argument to be made that 2 ends up being darker than 1 once you finally get into the meat of it, but the early impressions definitely come across as a more light-hearted game), and less whimsical art style, and fewer hamfisted shonen tropes (including blatantly subverting the fanservice bath scene in a way that provides meaningful worldbuilding, as opposed to 2 mostly playing the trope straight). Gameplay-wise, it arguably builds more on 2's foundation than 1's, but it incorporates a lot from both.

dragon504 posted...

I'm glad the affinity chart is back. I dunno why, but I really like that feature and wish more games had it. Would be really nice in something like Elder Scrolls imo.

It is a really nifty feature. It doesn't make a huge difference to Xenoblade's gameplay (consider, for comparison, the Bomber's Notebook in Majora's Mask, which serves a similar worldbuilding purpose but also helps to track sidequest progress and guess at next steps), but it really helps to flesh out the world by establishing everyone you interact with as being somehow interconnected and meaningfully affected by the actions you take.

Speaking of Xeno 3, just finished chapter 4 and am now at the start of chapter 5.

As I feared I was woefully overleveled for the Keves Castle area. Though that might be also because I did the Incursor class sidequest which I guess was supposed to be done around level 40-45, even though it unlocked around chapter 3. And the story area was around 38-40.

Still, I'm growing classes at a good pace. I only have 2-3 classes that aren't maxed on everyone. I guess taking the time to farm for 6 Mastery Necklaces once I hit level 30 was worth it.

As far as the story goes, (Chapter 4 spoilers ahead!) did the writers REALLY expect that we wouldn't recognize Consul N as Noah when they first showed him off way back in like chapter 2? They had a whole dramatic reveal and everything, as if it wasn't blatantly obvious at the start. Might have been better if he also had the full helmet on like the rest of the consuls so that the reveal would have had more impact.

And I'm glad that my guess about Melia was wrong. I had a couple of theories on why she might have turned evil, but I honestly did not expect the "She was a robot all along" angle. I don't know if that's a sign of good writing or bad, but it was unexpected that's for sure.

I'm now definitely intrigued on how this world came to be. There haven't been any significant lore explanation on how this whole continent formed or why the areas of Xeno 1 and 2 are here. Hopefully they'll explain it eventually, and not leave it like, "that's how the world is" type of explanation.

And I can I just say how awesome the main cast is? I don't think I have felt this kind of immediate attachment to the party compared to the other Xeno games.

I think the main contributing factor for that is that they are all together at the start instead of getting added one by one as the story progresses. This allows the game to focus on expanding their interpersonal relationships and growing and revealing their personalities.

Noah as a protagonist is still kinda bleh compared to Shulk for now (but is infinitely better than Rex), but the rest of the party really bring up the whole experience.

T0ffee posted...

I'm now definitely intrigued on how this world came to be. There haven't been any significant lore explanation on how this whole continent formed or why the areas of Xeno 1 and 2 are here. Hopefully they'll explain it eventually, and not leave it like, "that's how the world is" type of explanation.

They do. There's plenty of room to expand on the details of the world's history and whatnot, and there's a solid chance the story DLC is going to do that, but the origins are explained. I'll leave it at that.

T0ffee posted...

And I can I just say how awesome the main cast is? I don't think I have felt this kind of immediate attachment to the party compared to the other Xeno games.

100%. I think there's room to say that some of the individual characters don't necessarily measure up to others from previous games, but the sheer chemistry between party members is just unmatched by pretty much any other game I've seen. I absolutely adored watching them interact and develop alongside each other. I think a big part of that is the sheer volume of casual, non-story-related interactions they have, through side quests and camp conversations, but the end result is that it feels like I'm going on an adventure with them in a way that very few other games can boast. It's just great.

T0ffee posted...

I think the main contributing factor for that is that they are all together at the start instead of getting added one by one as the story progresses. This allows the game to focus on expanding their interpersonal relationships and growing and revealing their personalities.

Having two close groups of three that initially oppose each other but then pair off creates some great dynamics, especially since each pair is a different flavor of camaraderie. I used to say Tales was the king of character interactions in JRPGs, but XC3 consistently has everyone interacting from within the first like hour. It's a breath of fresh air from "this character was just recruited so they will be the center of every skit for the next chapter".

Budokai Tenkaichi 4 let's friggin' go

Up to Volume 9 on 3-gatsu no lion so I've almost cleared where the anime left off (only half of a volume left). Crazy how accurate that anime was to the manga but it was great I experienced it all again because it reminded me how much I enjoyed it the first time through.

Woohoo, bofuri back from being delayed a few weeks. What a fun episode. I want to play NewWorld (the fake mmo in the show, not the real "new world" mmo that is trash) even though it's a complete unbalanced nightmare. There's just so much stuff in it and the world is so vibrant and fun looking to explore.

Watched the first 10 eps of Isekai Ojisan so far. It's a nice take on the genre.

Still plugging away at Xeno 3 as well. The checkpoint seemingly every 200 meters is getting me annoyed a bit. Can't wait for the game to open up some more.

Finally finished up isekai uncle. The irony of the main guy talking about what a year it's been when the show literally aired during 3 seasons due to all the delays. It's actually been like 9 months since it started airing. Still, very fun show and I hope that it gets a season 2 and the elf girl comes to the japan and that the season doesn't have several super long delays.

Yo the latest two episodes of magic revolution are fucking trash. They have ruined this story. It makes no sense, everyone is being dumb, and for what? "If you take away me being princess, what will I have left?". Oh I don't know, maybe everything you had the whole fucking time you stupid moron. You saved the kingdom twice, you have more power than the entire military and nobility combined, you have royal authority, and you have the will of the people. She could literally do anything. She could obliterate the nobles, she could dissolve the kingdom and turn it into some other form of government, or she could just let her dad have or adopt another kid. The dude is still 40 and has like 30+ years to rule for. This makes negative sense and is so fucking melodramatic. I hate it.

And on top of that, what has anis learned? The entire previous conflict existed to teach her not to just silently take all the burden on herself and actually hear out the people you are doing that to try and protect and what does she do immediately after? The same fucking thing? Why even have that arc in the first place? How is she so stupid? I'm not sure I even care how it ends at this point because her character is already thoroughly ruined in my eyes. This feels like old yuri where they invent problems randomly half way through so it ends in tragedy and the yuri relationship can never end happily. Why? Why would they write it this way?

it definitely does feel like they're hamming up the "problem" way too hard so they have something to solve for the anime's conclusion, but it hasn't absolutely killed the show for me or anything. i think it's kinda reasonable that anis wouldn't spark a revolution on her own, possibly upending a bunch of commoner lives in a civil war. the common sense of a feudal society is that royals rule with the assistance of nobles- they can't just be phased out suddenly in one generation or you risk a revolution and then a compromise that leaves the nobles with more power than before. even if the governing system is fairer, maybe because it's fairer- everyone with power invested in the current system would do everything they could to sabotage her and ruin lives in the process

yeah she can murder a dragon but that's an entirely different skill from managing kingdom subterfuge. that one guy at the party almost convinced the nearby guards to arrest her, she doesn't have absolute societalpower

agesboy posted...

i think it's kinda reasonable that anis wouldn't spark a revolution on her own, possibly upending a bunch of commoner lives in a civil war

With her power there wouldn't even be a war. She's that far ahead of the game. Nothing can touch her. Even if she became queen and gave in to the corrupt nobles, that means she is turning a blind eye to the suffering of her people. if she has any intention to actually become queen, she will have to kill a majority of the nobles anyway. Theres no way around it. Revolutions happen for a reason and unlike her unfortunate brother, she has the power to do it without taking innocent lives, because she's just that strong. If she really intends to let the corrupt do as they please, then she was wrong to stop her brother. It's irresponsible unless she has a better solution.

agesboy posted...

she doesn't have absolute societalpower

She actually probably has the most societal power, just not in high society. The people love her and either don't know or hate the rest of the nobility. It's not unreasonable to think an uprising would happen anyway, even without her. The kingdom is not in good shape. If she does feel a responsibility to protect her kingdom, she NEEDS to destroy the nobility and route out the idea of wielding magic over the commoners. Something she is in a prime position to do.

And the scene where the guards even attempted to arrest her was ridiculous to begin with. Wtf did the bad guys think some goons can do the person that literally just killed a kingdom destroying dragon and absorbed it's power. All the politics in this show are nonsensical. Through the whole show, Anis doesn't seem to recognize her own power and deeds. She should be hailed throughout the land as an omnipotent savior if this thing made any sense. Too many people in the military saw what happened to possibly silence that.

i do agree with you from an objective (or maybe a reader/watcher's) standpoint, but anis is still almost entirely devoid of ambitions, due to both her experience as a japanese commoner and how feudal society has looked at her most her life

which is why euphie is needed to drill it into her how important she is but jesus we don't need like 3 episodes on this. maybe half an episode. i should go catch back up on the manga to see if it paces itself weirdly like this, last time i read the manga they were just meeting tilty

agesboy posted...

but anis is still almost entirely devoid of ambitions

Which is very strange and out of character, because up till this arc, her ambition drove the plot. She has the strongest ambition of any of the characters, or at least did. Idk. At this point the best I'm hoping for is a bullshit happy ending where everything works out and they end up happily together, which is somewhat unsatisfying, but at least I could just forget about the show after the fact (the xenoblade 2 ending basically). Why is it always the yuri anime that end this way. Starting to remind me of yami to boushi or that shrine maiden one.

YoukaiSlayer posted...

her ambition drove the plot.

her "selfishness" (that coincidentally helped everyone a fuckin lot) drove the plot; this whole time she's been doing things that she wanted to do that were a net gain to society (she diminished her role so she'd have more freedom for this purpose). the stakes just got a LOT bigger so she thinks she has to discard her selfishness and whims (even if pursuing that to its end would be best for everyone). this exact situation is what she's been trying to avoid because she already knows how she thinks she has to handle it

also there's no way that anis doesn't figure out how to make gay babies. she WILL find a way or this show has no meaning