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

(+) Yeah! (+)

aw yeah suck it feral chaos

all quests cleared. now to finish up the last of the feats I have left

Fire Emblem Engage: Chapter 23 beated.

Also the Paralogues after 21/22. But those were really underwhelming IMO. Marth's at least had some surprisingly strong enemies but Alear's was just boring and simple. Got the Pact Ring and gave it to Lapis. Super close call between her and Veyle and I'm already second guessing myself and think I would regardless of choice. I watched both S-Rank scenes and while Veyle's feels the more canon and Veyle deserves all the happy things FE S-Ranks are generally reserved for romance and yeah while Veyle's wasn't... this *is* FE and I can totally see the paired ending saying something like "And after the battle, Alear and Veyle found a letter Sombron wrote stating that Alear was adopted and he was waiting for the right time to tell the two of them." Fates-style lol. At least the S-Rank art is *waaaaaay* better than Three Houses was, at least the two I saw. never forget that edelgard one.

Engage+ is nuts lol. I'm not even sure what the accepted strategy is here but I'm just not running Alear with an Emblem Ring any more (Veyle taking Byleth in his place) and just an S-Rank Bond Ring. If we're running 14 deployments now with 12 Rings + Alear it works out. I guess I could do the same for Lapis to free up that ring but since Seadall is just dancing people I have him as the other Bond Ring holder.

Anyway, my army is too strong so Chapter 23 wasn't a challenge but I suppose now is a good time to say the Four Hounds have been a super weak antagonist group. They basically show up out of nowhere and are pretty static and almost comic book villains. Which is why it's actually kind of frustrating that Zephia and Griss get like *all* the characterization in their literal dying cutscene. Where the hell was that all game? For the first time I was actually interested in them!

FE:

Yeah that final cutscene kinda turned me around on them but it probably shouldn't have haha. They were too annoying earlier.

Romance-wise, that's something that was changed with the western version of the game. In the original you can basically romance everyone (the younger characters mostly hint at it being a thing in the future), but the western version removes 2/3 of the romances, including Veyle's. It's especially sad because of some fun stuff in their paired ending for the original that was taken out...

as expected of fire emblem lmao

Speaking of FE, I need to get through the first few chapters of Awakening and Fates so I can buy some DLC before the eshop shuts down

...well, assuming I can make some progress on job applications in the next week, anyway. I told myself I'd only let myself buy the DLC if I made some progress with that since I really need some deadlines for myself...

By the way, I do intend to get back to DRV3 at some point. I just reached a good stopping point and I've been hooked on Theatrhythm.

Fair, since Theatrhythm is a much better game. :p

You were pretty close to the end of DRV3 though I think...

MacArrowny posted...

Fair, since Theatrhythm is a much better game. :p

You were pretty close to the end of DRV3 though I think...

Yeah, I beat the main game. I just wanted to finish up doing the social link things.

Oh, right. Yeah, I think I heard the board game stuff is like 50+ hours. I didn't touch it myself.

Oh, is it really that time consuming? I don't feel like it took up that much time in the other two games, but maybe it's more involved in this one.

Sonic Prime Episode 6 complete!

I had a feeling we weren't done with New Yolk City yet. Wonder what world we're headed to next.

FE Engage beated.

Chapter 24 I feel like we could have done a lot more if we were going to the past. Granted we were on a time limit but like, if we knew it was a time travel stone we could have warned Lumera about everything LOL. Pretty straightforward map.

Chapter 25, okay this probably my new favorite for music. Both the map theme and boss theme were great. Story pretty tense even though everything with Lumera feels really unearned because she dies so quickly so the player doesn't really get to be invested in her and it's always a bit weird how attached Alear is given he knew her for like literally 12 hours. Well, I guess with his memories back (and he claims they're all back and I'll just take him at his word I guess lol) it makes a bit more sense. I kinda wish those reinforcements didn't have the "No EXP" tag on them because then I absolutely would have tried to pull a repeat of Chapter 21 and tried to beat them. But with that tag it feels pointless and might actually be infinite - it's what I've always assumed when reinforcements with that tag start appearing.

Chapter 26, oh my god Sombron is an isekai protagonist. Still a very lame character and unlike Zephia and Griss none of this motivation is landing with me. Kinda neat map, at least in Phase 2 with the Dark Emblems. I probably could have skipped a round of them because I was able to knock two of his HP bars off the first time I took down the barrier but I intentionally held back the next time I did so he could summon the (final? I assume so) Dark Emblems so I could complete my grudge matches.

And that's it, I guess. ED was neat as were the "where are they now" art in the credits - what happens if you let characters die? Do they skip the ones that include them? Or keep them because in theory Lapis shouldn't still be working for Alcryst tbqhhh. A bit disappointed nothing seemed to open up after like a new Tempest Trial or anything, though it knocked off the level limit? Didn't check to see where it goes now. I... guess I'm done then?

I have some serious mixed feelings on Engage. The story is just... not good. It's really glaring after Three Houses but even putting that aside it's just really underwhelming. Characters are also really hit or miss and I feel like there were more misses than usual. And my least favorite thing, and it kind of casts a shadow over the rest, the Somniel just isn't good. It's objectively smaller than the Monastery but it feels like so much more of a chore because of the loading zones to various parts of it, useless dead time because it forces certain characters to man certain areas/minigames so if someone else is there it has to switch them out (or just needlessly disable the minigame in general because of the randomness in which characters are present lmao), and the minigames just kinda suck. Especially training. god how did that pass the design phase? Gameplay was great though so that's where a lot of the mixed feelings come in. The break system was neat and Emblems weren't bad either. Smash weapons felt useless though. Almost never used them.

Definitely a big step down from Three Houses IMO.

Next up should be Trails to Azure which actually means replaying Trails from Zero even though it hasn't been that long but I'm a very silly person. Thankfully NG+ should help speed things up on that front.

Edit: Oh also seeing that the Engage Story DLC trailers are dropping. First Elden Ring rises from the dead to drop a DLC announcement mere days after I beat it, now Enage does hours after. Trails to Azure DLC gonna be lit in like a month and a half.

The Somniel is one of the worst done parts of the game yeah. I ended up skipping most of it after a few chapters, but still wasted way too much time there. Love Emblems though.

Thorn posted...

Chapter 24 I feel like we could have done a lot more if we were going to the past. Granted we were on a time limit but like, if we knew it was a time travel stone we could have warned Lumera about everything LOL.

It was a stable time loop tho :p

So as someone who has only played Three Houses, should I give Engage a shot?

I quite liked it, but Awakening still tops it.

Well, it's different - but in a lot of ways you could say Three Houses was the different one and that Engage is closer to how Fire Emblem usually is - but it's probably worth a shot for that reason. It's more representative of the series I feel.

Sonic Prime Episode 7 complete!

Okay, Batten Rouge as a name for the pirate version of Rouge is an Ace Attorney tier name pun.

Also, I enjoyed using 2D Sonic sprites for flashbacks, but is this an alternate reality to the games? Sonic and Knuckles didn't first meet at the Hidden Palace Zone, after all.

I dunno I don't think Engage is that similar to other FEs.

Sonic Prime Season 1 complete!

I liked this alternate version of Knuckles. They gave him a pretty interesting backstory.

I'll be curious to see what they do next. It looks like Shadow will become a major character based on how the season ended there.

Welp, one of my roommates has covid

Heres to hoping I manage to avoid catching it!

The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 4 complete!

Got some Grogu backstory in this one, which was nice. This season has a lot of dinosaurs in it, too.

LordoftheMorons posted...

Welp, one of my roommates has covid

Heres to hoping I manage to avoid catching it!

Hope you stay safe!

Some bad cold has been going around here and I just caught it yesterday. Last night sucked. I didn't test myself but the ones I almost certainly caught it from did and they came back negative so I think it's just a cold. Nasty sore throat and sinus congestion though.

Yeah I had an awful cold (like possibly the worst one I've had in my life) for like three weeks that I just got over maybe 1.5 weeks ago. I tested for covid on days 2 and 3 of symptoms and it was negative, and my (other) roommate who I caught it from also had two negative tests. Hope yours isn't as bad as that!

Yeah, there's some sort of nasty cold going around here, too. My son's been dealing with it this week.

man only one note away from getting an All-Rainbow-Critical in Theatrhythm

Finished chapter 4 in FE Awakening so I can buy that DLC if I make the job hunt progress I told myself Id do. Still have to start up Fates as well, though (Ive already beaten Shadows of Valentia)

LeonhartFour posted...

man only one note away from getting an All-Rainbow-Critical in Theatrhythm

I've never even gotten 9.9M, alas, much less all 9s.

https://theyetee.com/products/whatever

So bishie

0/4 in Final Four picks again

It feels like I used to be good at this

based uconn got me 1/4

But man that second Sweet Sixteen day killed me. Felt like I might be making a minor comeback and that Houston and Alabama go down within like an hour of each other and there went bracket.

I'd be stunned if the majority of people got more than 1 right this year

I heard that 37 people in the ESPN Tournament Challenge got the correct Final Four, but I wonder how many of those are actual prize brackets.

2/8, 0/4 for me.

Ted Lasso Season 3 Episode 2 complete!

Glad they found a way to give Trent Crimm a new role on the show. I'll be interested to see how this plays out.

https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1640436382639464448

bring on the robot umps please

https://youtu.be/a6qna-ZCbxA

Posting this here for me to watch later

Seems like a lot of negativity around it but I enjoyed what I saw and am looking forward to playing this.

Automata DLC for Theatrhythm is out.

Wish it was more than 5 tracks, and one of them wasn't a joke track, and that Weight of the World was longer (the final combined version would be ideal...)

TheManaSword posted...

Seems like a lot of negativity around it but I enjoyed what I saw and am looking forward to playing this.

Weapon/shield fusing seems like a ton of fun. I'll be curious to see how far they let you go with it.

looking forward to building an airship that functions as a bomber so link can rain boulders down upon the bases of his foes

My podcast app has been slow in showing new episodes for the last week or so. It's kind of annoying when I listen to them at work, so I'm getting left without new episodes until I get home. I guess I'll just have to be a day behind until it gets fixed.

Have you still been listening to A Memory of Light?

MacArrowny posted...

Have you still been listening to A Memory of Light?

Yeah, I have been. I prefer to listen to it in short bursts (like an hour at a time at most), but I did end up listening to it for most of the day today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD5V4fimwlU

why does this world have so many rock formations jutting out of the ground

The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 5 complete!

Pirates vs. Mandalorians was a good time.

Yeah, the Automata pack for Theatrhythm is a little disappointing. Not really sure what led them to make these picks when the game has so many better songs.

I'm honestly cool with the songs they picked (other than the Emil one of course, which is maybe a troll pick from Yoko Taro...?), I just think there should be more. Alien Manifestation and Birth of a Wish especially would be nice. I played through them today, and Amusement Park was the most fun to play.

Also, someone managed this for the first time in the world yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLtfcJcCOro

cannot imagine being this good at the game

Okay, I'm getting back to DRV3 and doing the Love Across the Universe thing to max out Friendship Fragments.

if I had done more of Gonta's Free Time Events during the game maybe I'd have realized this whole thing was made up sooner, he literally told the stories of Chrono Trigger and Street Fighter as his backstory lawl