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

(+) Yeah! (+)

Well, due to some complications, it looks like I'm about to meet my daughter a month early.

Hope everything goes well!

I hope the complications aren't serious and wishing you and your wife the best!

Well, we had a C-section because my wife's blood pressure was really high and wasn't coming down, and then the baby started getting really lethargic and wasn't moving like she should.

Wife did great, baby is doing well, all things considered. Her oxygen level is low, which is expected considering she's early.

hope things continue to trend well!

That's a rough way to start but congrats!

Congrats!

Glad to hear things are going well

Got Super Mario Bros. Wonder for my birthday; fun game so far! Reminds me a lot of World.

Leonhart4 posted...

Well, we had a C-section because my wife's blood pressure was really high and wasn't coming down, and then the baby started getting really lethargic and wasn't moving like she should.

Wife did great, baby is doing well, all things considered. Her oxygen level is low, which is expected considering she's early.

Glad things turned out okay, and congratulations!

Congrats! Hope things keep going well.

She's in the NICU for the time being until her lungs develop to the point that she can breathe on her own. She also has jaundice (which isn't uncommon), so she's being treated for that, too.

Yeah, IIRC I had jaundice when I was born too.

Thorn posted...

Well, as I mentioned in one of the Finale write-ups, you can tell the translation and editing kind of went out to lunch later in the game so I suppose that doesn't surprise me!

And yeah, I haven't made any progress since then, sorry. >.< just haven't had the energy to play during my free time.

ugh, did that really happen again? I remember you could tell in CS3 the exact moment Hatsuu had to step away because things just sunk.

and i am also in the middle of a WoT book 4 reread i should pick up the pace or something >_>

Also BABY YAY CONGRATS! My sister was also a premie and had jaundice, it's nothing to worry about.

dowolf posted...

ugh, did that really happen again? I remember you could tell in CS3 the exact moment Hatsuu had to step away because things just sunk.

Yeah. Honestly, the typo and wrong or missing words situation is probably the worst of the Trails games but you can definitely see the frequency pick up towards the end of the game.

But the example I singled out in that post as probably the clearest instance related to the Final Dungeon:

NISA went with "Retributive Tower" as the official name for it. That's what's used in the voiced lines, mandatory story dialogue, the area title, etc. However, once you stray from that into the more optional/lesser seen stuff I'd wager you see "Reverse Babel" used more often. Some minor NPCs will refer to it as such, the story summary blurbs on the "Trails to Walk" route switch screen refer to it as such, I think the story summary itself does. Some NPCs still use Retributive Tower but the use of Reverse Babel is well past a one-off or something.

They told us today that she could be in here up to three weeks, but it could be sooner. They said the main problem NICU babies have is learning how to eat since they're usually being fed through tubes and IVs, so if she picks it up quickly, she could get out of here sooner than that.

Thorn posted...

Yeah. Honestly, the typo and wrong or missing words situation is probably the worst of the Trails games but you can definitely see the frequency pick up towards the end of the game.

But the example I singled out in that post as probably the clearest instance related to the Final Dungeon:

NISA went with "Retributive Tower" as the official name for it. That's what's used in the voiced lines, mandatory story dialogue, the area title, etc. However, once you stray from that into the more optional/lesser seen stuff I'd wager you see "Reverse Babel" used more often. Some minor NPCs will refer to it as such, the story summary blurbs on the "Trails to Walk" route switch screen refer to it as such, I think the story summary itself does. Some NPCs still use Retributive Tower but the use of Reverse Babel is well past a one-off or something.

...god dammit nisa. i want to complain that "retributive tower" makes no sense, but honestly neither does "reverse babel" so >_>

I'm kinda shocked that hasn't been patched. The game came out 5 months ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tXGauwdCys

heck yeah Sonic Prime Season 3 preview

Frasier 2.0 Episode 6 complete!

That was a good mystery. I couldn't figure that one out before the reveal.

Trails into Reverie (postgame) - Made it to the Depths of the Zeroth stratum and this appears to be the end for real. Though I withdrew to watch daydreams and do trial door stuff.

Exploring the Stratums: Calling shenanigans on the party saying the floor guardian are getting strong. I still think Overlord McBurn was the biggest card played so far. I'll at least grant that the Roselia + Argres fight might be in a similar realm but as hilarious a title as "Damned Gralsritter" is no way that 3 Dominions - at least those 3 - are on the same level. Hell, the midboss - Corrupted Valimar - would have made more sense. It was also revealed that it is indeed KeA Alter, though she says her name is OzXX. Glad that Sara remembered that Alberich literally told us in CS3 that he stole the Crois family's homunculus tech to design the Oz series because I was about to smack the party for acting so surprised. Also while it appears the SSS has realized that our final boss is 100% going to be Azure Demiourgos Alter because that's literally the only conclusion their discussion is leading to, they keep dancing around it and not actually telling the others that which is kind of a jerk move tbqh. Or they're just really committed to the presentation and don't want to spoil it.

Minigames:

Quiz, Maniac Mode: Oh, I guess I have to retract some of my gripes from Brutal Mode from back when I thought that was the final difficulty. Now we got those OST questions I live for lol.

Daydreams: This was a pretty great batch.

Brights: road trip. It was nice to see how Renne is integrating with her new family, even if it *has* been two years I think from the end of Zero. Particularly how while she fits in just fine with Estelle and Joshua for obvious reasons it's a bit different with Cassius because he's totally a deadbeat who doesn't visit his kids and instead sends them on cross-country investigations of his maybe-death instead. Could have done without Gilbert showing up again, but eh.

Instructors: Weakest of the batch, but still fun because you knew Aurelia was going to take this to 11 once she got roped into it. And she delivered. LOL walking in right when it seemed resolved to just stir up more shit. And it reminded me that a prequel involving Aurelia's days at Thors would be an amazing experience.

Ash: The best of this batch and another contender for best overall. Ash's Shadow was great and watching him run the open house was pretty good as well. LMAO at Musse completely playing him by leaving out that he was *actually* nominated for Student Council President. Rean, Class VII, and Tatiana confronting him over his plans to drop out was great. Also underrated moment - Ash saying literally anyone else would be a better pick for President... except Altina only for Altina to return fire a few minutes later with the ice cold "I wouldn't be particularly upset if you left" during the big moment causing Juna to be like "uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh allie?" she still got it.

Rean: This was neat if only for the look into Osborne's true feelings even if it does serve as an annoying reminder that he was the latest instance of "actually a secret hero all along." It did clear something up for me (though maybe I simply forgot and CS4 has explained it) about what Osborne's plan actually was. Sounded like he was going to pull the Rean Normal End himself if he won and that was the OG plan that got disrupted by Rean actually winning. Also A+ ending with the music and picture. Wish there had been more of that on the other daydreams but I guess it wouldn't have been as impactful here if it was standard practice.

Got two Trial Door challenges left and then I think it's time to go complete the Reverie Corridor. Unless there's a post-postgame. Which idk there might be. But based on the Combat Log this seems like the end of the Trial Doors at least so unless they make up a new tab I would not expect more floors.

Also reached the highest RP rank (again) yay.

Daughter seems to be doing well. The hope is that she can be home by the end of the month, if not a little sooner.

I don't think the whole thing has really sunken in yet since we can't bring her home.

how's the older kid doing?

SeabassDebeste posted...

how's the older kid doing?

He's almost 19 months now, and it feels like he's hitting a real growth spurt developmentally. He's trying to string words together, and it feels like he understands what we say really well now. It's so much fun.

https://youtu.be/jMmQvMJZBsA?si=-FG6lYc6lCSXNYTx

Apollo with a great one-liner

Leonhart4 posted...

Daughter seems to be doing well. The hope is that she can be home by the end of the month, if not a little sooner.

I don't think the whole thing has really sunken in yet since we can't bring her home.

Glad everything seems to be going well. Congrats Leon!

Warbreaker beated! Man, that was a really good book. I still never totally got the magic system, but they made it work. The selling point is definitely the characters for me though. Really strong cast, and the story uses them well.

I guess I'll start on The Stormlight Archive next since that's what follows on the bibliography.

Yeah, Warbreaker's pretty dang cool! It's awesome how everything comes together at the end.

Whew, life is pretty busy between work and having a kid in the hospital.

Trails Into Reverie postgame beated.

Reverie Corridor Endgame: I may have overprepared for this. Maybe. Just a bit. Anyway, as expected Elysium was trying to recreate Demiourgos - though I guess there was a surprise in that it somehow found traces of the original despite it having erased itself rather than just recreating the Crois method. Before it was made clear after the battle I found everything the Demiourgos was saying fascinating and was trying to incorporate it into theories in real-time but alas it sounds like it was just corrupted by Elysium too and so all it's talk about embracing destruction was probably just the Elysium programming and not any insight into whatever the hell is really going on with the Sept-Terrions/Aidios.

It literally never got an action in any of its three phases, but for posterity, my teams looked like this:

Team A (Rufus and friends): Rufus, Jusis, Lapis, Renne. Reserve: Swin, Nadia, Duvalie, and Vita. Backup: Lechter and Claire.
Team B (Rean and Liberl): Rean, Fie, Crow, Altina. Reserve: Estelle, Joshua, Tita, McBurn. Backup: Roselia and Alfin (or maybe Olivier, it was an Arnor though)
Team C (Team SSS): Lloyd, Randy, Rixia, Tio. Reserve: Wazy, Noel, Elie, Juna. Backup: KeA, Arios

The scene afterwards between OzXX and particularly Altina and KeA was nice. Then AZOTH was like... "ah fuck it, i'll let you guys remember this." However, the fact that apparently you can convert databases to can-work-in-Zemuria fashion is super interesting and certainly helps the simulation theory out.

And one final trip to the Daydreams. Technically one Daydream but as anyone who's seen it will understand, I'll be dividing it into three parts.

Rean: Yun Ka-fai ghosting everyone. Last we (and Rean) knew was he went out East to investigate the desertification of Eastern Zemuria. Someone actually mentioned it during the course of the story or Corridor as well so it's definitely still happening. With that in mind, and given that Rean heard that bit like a full year-plus from when this is taking place, it actually feels like the reason this was doomed to not find him is that he didn't go East *enough*. Like you'd have to go well clear of Calvard I assume. Instead, Rean finds ninja. And his maybe-senpai? Rean describes her as his age or maybe younger but at the same Rean is supposed to be the last disciple so by default anyone Yun Ka-fai taught should be his senpai I think? Sounds like she is wielding whatever new form of Zemurian Ore form we'll have in Calvard because Rean thought it was stronger than any other sword he's seen (and I am just going to assume he is not including the Sword of the End here or I'm out) and gets his sword broken. Which instinctively lets him know that he has lost his protagonist status and t get the hell out of dodge.

Renne: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I'm going to start with the worst of times because I genuinely really liked this and want to end on a high note. Is it now canon that Tita and Agate are dating? Please tell me this is a translation error and Renne is just teasing Tita like usual and blowing Tita's mention that she and Agate agreed to go somewhere up into something it's not to mess with her. Because dammit, Renne and Tita talking all night and losing track of time this is the real ship Falcom you must see it!

Okay, back to serious matters. Verne told the Epstein Foundation to get lost and for the first time (excepting, I assume, Ouroboros - nevermind that Duvalie had an ARCUS) there's gonna be a battle orbment developed without the Foundation's input. LMFAO at Tita relaying Estelle and Joshua's concerns though. "They wanted me to ask if you were being bullied at school. They said they'd head right over if you were." "...They really think I can't handle high school bullies?" "Oh. No. They''d be coming to protect the bullies from *you*." "..."

Meanwhile, Renne learns that her life is an anime and that mysterious new transfer students are always the most popular so this was actually an extremely poor strategy for maintaining a low cover. And then ends a man's whole career because his son was too stupid to realize he probably would have just won if he didn't do everything in his power to make Renne look like a goddess to the entire student body (which she does point out!) LOL at her comparing her unlikely election to Student Council President with Ash's.

Elaine: I liked the first person POV here and Elaine left a good impression from me between the snarking at Zin in the beginning over her rejecting promotions to thinking about her own issues. This was basically just a Kuro/Daybreaker teaser but it was a nice read. However, like Rean before her, she realized she lacked protagonist status when she ran into a villain who can no-sell anything from a non-protagonist. From a group called A. Damn, wasn't ready to hear that Anton had gone that bad. Her promotion to A-Rank however reminds us all of one of this series's greatest injustices - that Estelle is not an A-rank bracer *even now* when she should have set the record *and* put it forever out of reach like some of the old baseball ones like Cal Ripken at the end of *SC*. Let alone Zero. Or CS4. Or Reverie.

So that's Trails into Reverie, I guess! I liked it quite a bit, even if there are a few decisions Falcom made that are just... no.

and now, in the words that dowolf says are extremely poorly translated, i must look forward to look back - and that means looking back to the xenoblade 3 dlc finally after all this time.

Uh if anyone wants rankings or thoughts on anything in particular just let me know and i will try.

Lapis > Nadia > C > Svin but all are cool. Overall, they're easily the best core Trails cast yet.

Thorn posted...

Renne: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I'm going to start with the worst of times because I genuinely really liked this and want to end on a high note. Is it now canon that Tita and Agate are dating? Please tell me this is a translation error and Renne is just teasing Tita like usual and blowing Tita's mention that she and Agate agreed to go somewhere up into something it's not to mess with her.

I didn't take that as implying that they're dating. They've spent a lot of time going places together since Sky, this is just more of that.

It was more that Renne described them as being in a "rut." Now, again, that could be her teasing - but Tita didn't object to it and even repeated it back that they weren't in so much of a rut when telling her they were going somewhere the next week. She only pushes back out of embarrassment when Renne replies to *that* with a crack about "climbing the stairs to adulthood." So it read a bit uncomfortably to me that Tita was fine with it being described as a *date* and only got flustered when Renne took it to 11.

Again, could just be teasing and that Tita by now just rolls with some of it and I am hoping that is the case. But Falcom has lost all my trust on this matter over the course of CS4.

Also SSS still the best core cast, IMO. C's group is very good though, yes, and would be second place. C > Lapis > Nadia > Swin. But really the first three are all very close and it's just Swin who is definitely behind them.

I might rank Nadia over the whole SSS... Tio's pretty good though.

Thorn posted...

Is it now canon that Tita and Agate are dating? Please tell me this is a translation error and Renne is just teasing Tita like usual and blowing Tita's mention that she and Agate agreed to go somewhere up into something it's not to mess with her.

I'm sorry, but the JP made it very clear IIRC that they're going out (or at the very least have mutual crushes).

But on a more general note, The postgame VNs -- especially Renne's and Elaine's -- saved the series for me. I was... very unhappy with Reverie's main plot, and was tempted to swear off the series in general after I finished it. But a few weeks later, the postgame came out, and the writing quality was... actually good again. Which it hadn't been in so long.

C > Lapis > Nadia > Swin is just wrong. You need at least five more greater thans between Nadia and Swin. Also I probably swap Lapis and C but >_>

dowolf: oh noooooooooooooooo. Argh. Well, in spite of that it was still probably my favorite daydream of the game. But ughhh.

MacArrowny posted...

I might rank Nadia over the whole SSS... Tio's pretty good though.

I would definitely take Randy and Tio over C's group. Probably my new mancrush Lloyd too. all of c's group leave elie in the dust though.

For the Liberl gang I was counting the core as the FC party. If you make it just Estelle and Joshua since it's basically a rotating party until halfway through SC they'd win but that feels like cheating.

As for Reverie's plot, I'm fine with it from a birds-eye view - Elysium and all that - but it definitely flubs the details/execution sometimes - like Aurelia and co. deflecting the Tower's beam is just ridiculous even if they were getting buffs from the Hexen Clan. Also ironically the Demiourgous plan should have been Elysium's main plot instead of a "fuck you guys you're cheating" move against AZOTH. Elysium felt more like a Sept-Terrion in line with the Aureole and Demiourgos compared to ~the curse~ and Ishmelga at least.

dowolf posted...

C > Lapis > Nadia > Swin is just wrong

I mean, I could have put some extra >>>s to separate Nadia and Swin but I actually considered it and went "naw i don't want to humiliate swin that much, he's okay" but probably should have at least one given that he's definitely a tier under the other three. Like I said, the others I could swap around depending on mood - Lapis or Nadia could easily end up in the top spot depending on how I'm feeling.

C's party is great but I still don't think I like them as much as the SSS or even New Class VII.

Liberl has the best individual characters but for some reason I have more difficulty thinking of them as a group. This doesn't really matter for the game itself but it makes answering this specific question a bit weird.

Kurt (and Musse) dragging down New Class VII but they're in the conversation for sure. Juna/Altina/Ash are all super-solid and some of the best characters in the arc.

I've always liked Kurt.

Musse no thanks though.

The Stormlight Archive is intriguing so far (I'm only through Part 1 of the first book, by the way). I like what they're setting up here and I'm curious to learn more about how the world works.

I think the first book's the weakest of Stormlight, but the world's definitely super interesting.

I agree that the first book is the weakest, but imo that just speaks to the strengths of the later volumes. Heck, it also might be my favorite book 1 of a "big" fantasy epic? So many start off on the wrong foot (a part of me loves how the Dark is Rising Sequence is named after the second book), and The Way of Kings absolutely does not.

https://youtu.be/XhpRx6H4Shk?si=dusUl_QaFJRZF95o

Underrated case

Finally beat Zelda!

That was a really good finale actually. Much better than BotW

One day I'll finish it!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80627208

New topic

I just assumed you did beat it! How far did you get?

I was getting ready to head back to Hyrule Castle. I assume I'm not too far from the end of the main game, so I could probably finish that if I buckled down and didn't do any more side content.

I also have yet to finish it.

BotW took me a few years to finish and I absolutely loved it. I think it just works best for me to pick up occasionally for games like this.

Part of it is that my wife doesn't want me advancing the main story without her, and well, she's been a little busy with other things lately.

But one day I will finish Zelda and Trails