The Last To Post Wins!

[DragonFlames]

11 hours ago, Hekselka said:

Any games you guys are looking forward to? I can’t wait for dq11, Baldur’s gate collection and The Witcher 3. Then next year’s trials of mana and XB Switch.

Atelier Ryza and Tales of Arise, mainly.

15 hours ago, Armagon said:

Congrats. 

  Reveal hidden contents

Sterk's gonna be out of commission for 80 days, iirc. Hope you have enough time to see the final Sterk event.

 

 

Yup, I was fine.

15 hours ago, Armagon said:

Oh well you're not supposed to. It's more of a nice Easter egg, referencing the unintended part of Gaiden where Celica could recruit Kliff if Alm didn't. Faye's recruitment dialogue with Celica is like the biggest thing making me wish for a Support between those two because she was genuianly happen to be reunited with her. We were robbed, God damn it.

I can understand that, even if I've never seen the dialogue myself.

EDIT: I've just got done writing a "review" for Atelier Rorona. You can read it over on the "Sooo, what'cha playing?" topic, if anyone is interested in my ramblings.

Edited September 25, 2019 by DragonFlames

[Armagon]

Gunvolt Chronicles is supposed to come out tomorrow but Steam users got it a day early and their are people in my TL already playing but i can't 

[DragonFlames]

1 minute ago, Armagon said:

Gunvolt Chronicles is supposed to come out tomorrow but Steam users got it a day early and their are people in my TL already playing but i can't

I guess this is how the people in the "Doesn't have Three Houses yet" club must feel.
Discussing that game here is a minefield because of this, because I honestly don't want to spoil anything for anyone.

[Armagon]

6 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

I guess this is how the people in the "Doesn't have Three Houses yet" club must feel.
Discussing that game here is a minefield because of this, because I honestly don't want to spoil anything for anyone.

The funny thing is i'm pretty sure GV Chronicles wasn't supposed to come out on Steam today.

Inti Creates says it was supposed to be tomorrow but Steam must've gotten the date wrong.

The Gunvolt series is also way more gameplay than story so unlike Three Houses, i'm not too worried about seeing spoilers pop up on my TL but it is a Gunvolt game which means i'm totally expecting it to emotionally destroy me a third time.

[DragonFlames]

1 minute ago, Armagon said:

The funny thing is i'm pretty sure GV Chronicles wasn't supposed to come out on Steam today.

Inti Creates says it was supposed to be tomorrow but Steam must've gotten the date wrong.

The Gunvolt series is also way more gameplay than story so unlike Three Houses, i'm not too worried about seeing spoilers pop up on my TL but it is a Gunvolt game which means i'm totally expecting it to emotionally destroy me a third time.

Steam effed up.
In other news, the sky continues to be blue and water is still classified as wet.

All sarcasm aside, if it's just one day, I think it isn't too bad. One week or one month would be an entirely different story.
As for the emotional destruction thing, my emotions are in shambles after Re;Birth 2 Conquest Route and Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk, so there isn't much left to destroy anymore.

[Armagon]

 

3 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

As for the emotional destruction thing, my emotions are in shambles after Re;Birth 2 Conquest Route and Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk, so there isn't much left to destroy anymore.

Oh i will say Gunvolt games don't emotionally destroy me to that extent but the feels still hurt.

[Shrimpica]

[DragonFlames]

5 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Oh i will say Gunvolt games don't emotionally destroy me to that extent but the feels still hurt.

I haven't played any Gunvolt games, so I can't speak about that, but when a game manages to give me the feels... good lord does it give me the feels.
Tales of Xillia 2
Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 2 Conquest Route
These three are my "holy hell, the feels!" games that have left me an emotional wreck after playing them, the intensity of wreckage in ascending order.

---

Apparently, we are posting Neptunia artwork... so here you go:

[Shrimpica]

https://old.reddit.com/r/commandandconquer/comments/d97drh/remaster_update_and_soundtrack_jukebox_preview/
fuck me, EA actually seems to be doing a good job....

 

I don't want to raise my Hype levels, but......

[WeAreNewcastle1053]

4 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

Apparently, we are posting Neptunia artwork... so here you go:

Jeez, I can't get over how some of these (probably teenage) girls are so oversexualised/fanservicey. Neptunia looks kinda alright... but the others need some work!

[Nobody]

it is raining in here after 4 months without it and I can't stand the smell of wet earth

Edited September 25, 2019 by Nobody

[Acacia Sgt]

Oh, over there too?

[Interdimensional Observer]

@Armagon again, just a few, not so serious comments.:

Spoiler

7 hours ago, Armagon said:

However, the reason i think the Black Knight is part of Xenoblade's version of the Testaments is because, at least visually, the Ghosts are very similar to Xenosaga's Gnosis

The one in the middle of this picture recalls some of the "fatter" XC1 Telethia, is it just me?

7 hours ago, Armagon said:

As for the Testaments themselves, to put it simply, they are neither alive nor dead but every single one of them has died prior to becoming a Testament.

A bit like the Gazel Ministry as it is in XG's present I see. Since Karelian explicitly said they were neither dead or alive I believe once they were uploaded to that computer.

7 hours ago, Armagon said:

And on a visual note, there are similarities between the Testaments and the Black Knight

Plague Doctor meets Gazel, meets Grahf too for the Red one. Hmm...

And why White-Blue-Red-Black? Being a quartet and their appearances bring to mind the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, so Blue I think should have been a pale green instead. But this is a minor nitpick.

7 hours ago, Armagon said:

Hmm ok, maybe not as similar but both of them are still covered in armor from head to toe. The Black Knight seems to have a weapon while the Testaments were more Ether based. But like i said, the Knights don't have to be an exact copy of the Testaments.

I wouldn't mind if our Black Knight here ditched the sword for fisticuffs, I liked that about Fei and Grahf and Id. Swords are overdone as is, fists are a good alternative.

The sword looks like it would be classified as a Saber with that curvature. But, one could also spin as a Katana. Where am I going with this?:

• Assume Lone Hero = Black Knight.
• Black Knight possibly carries a katana.
• Elma heavily implies that Lone Hero is Japanese in XC2. 
• Katanas are Japanese.
• A high-ranking member of BLADE, Secretary Nagi, has a katana. It functions in gameplay as just as a visually distinct but otherwise ordinary Longsword. (A few other katanas exist as very rare enemy drops.)
• It is possible the Lone Hero had a katana.
• It is possible the Lone Hero carried his favored weapon with him in the Ares when he vanished. 
• It is possible Monolith could do a little Mumkhar foreshadowing- by giving a "dead" man his "resurrected" self his old weapon- again.

If that were the case, then Lao if Knighted needn't to be a slasher with a sword, and can instead go Javelin and stab his former friends.

And if there are more Knights to be had besides these two, maybe they could showcase other weapon types. I liked how Breath of the Wild had a Champion for every weapon type Link could use. Whilst I don't want 6/12 Knights b/c villain glut, four of them, each with a preference for a different weapon, would be a minor likable detail.

And you got me looking at armor, because I wanted to see what I thought looked loosely similar to Spoiler's in XCX, not that it at all could be related. The closest I found was Grenada Medium, which wasn't all that close.

That got me looking at armor I never really did, because I tended to assign as fashion armor whatever each character started with, and I gave Cross professional but less armory clothes. And, then I noticed this set:

How is this bona-fide armor and not a casual wear swimsuit? Meredith & Co. is the Arms Manufacturer whose flavor is "reverse-engineered Ganglion-inspired designs", the feet are even partly bare on the bottom. I don't recall Luxaar or any Prone wearing anything like this.

-When I play XCX again, I think I'm gonna have to mess with this stuff. 

[Armagon]

So today it was brought to my attention that this official art of Sword Valley exists. Apparently it was part of a contest by NoA back when Xenoblade was finally being released in America and it was basically to decide what the reversible cover art of the game would be.

Looks a little bit different than what Sword Valley actually looks like in game but still close enough and still manages to capture the scale of the world. Seeing the Mechonis looming in the distance but much closer than when you first saw it (as this area is literally located on a giant sword that connects the two Titans).

 

9 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

I haven't played any Gunvolt games

They are really good games. I do remember you saying you aren't good with 2D platformers and the Azure Striker Gunvolt series is basically a spiritual successor to Mega Man Zero so it might not be your cup of tea. Still though, the first game has a demo of which you can download on the 3DS eShop so if you wanna give it a test run, you can.

 

5 hours ago, WeAreNewcastle1053 said:

Jeez, I can't get over how some of these (probably teenage) girls are so oversexualised/fanservicey. Neptunia looks kinda alright... but the others need some work!

Bruh, that's tame lmao. The series isn't really that fanservicey for the most part. 

4 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

again, just a few, not so serious comments.:

  Reveal hidden contents

Spoiler

4 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

And why White-Blue-Red-Black? Being a quartet and their appearances bring to mind the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, so Blue I think should have been a pale green instead. But this is a minor nitpick.

 I think it was just to create a better contrast

• Red/Blue
• White/Black

4 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

The one in the middle of this picture recalls some of the "fatter" XC1 Telethia, is it just me?

Nah, i can see it too.

4 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I wouldn't mind if our Black Knight here ditched the sword for fisticuffs, I liked that about Fei and Grahf and Id. Swords are overdone as is, fists are a good alternative.

The sword looks like it would be classified as a Saber with that curvature. But, one could also spin as a Katana. Where am I going with this?:

• Assume Lone Hero = Black Knight.
• Black Knight possibly carries a katana.
• Elma heavily implies that Lone Hero is Japanese in XC2. 
• Katanas are Japanese.
• A high-ranking member of BLADE, Secretary Nagi, has a katana. It functions in gameplay as just as a visually distinct but otherwise ordinary Longsword. (A few other katanas exist as very rare enemy drops.)
• It is possible the Lone Hero had a katana.
• It is possible the Lone Hero carried his favored weapon with him in the Ares when he vanished. 
• It is possible Monolith could do a little Mumkhar foreshadowing- by giving a "dead" man his "resurrected" self his old weapon- again.

I wouldn't mind to see more brawlers back in Xeno. We did have them with chaos (yes, his name is spelled with a lowercase) and Ziggy, though they both also had access to some long range attacks. Xenoblade didn't really have brawlers until the Knuckle Claw Blades in Xenoblade 2.....but even then, there were no default brawler characters. So seeing more brawler characters in the future would be good.

And that's an interesting theory you've got there with the Black Knight's sword. Like i've mentioned before, the Black Knight=Lone Hero is probably the correct theory but this observation you've made makes that more likley.

Back to the Testament comparison real quick, we do have the actual Black Knight model

Looks a bit different than the concept art. In particular, his core is a deep purple instead of a light blue. He also has a hood, similar to the Testaments. Just another observation i've made here.

 

 

 

4 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

And you got me looking at armor, because I wanted to see what I thought looked loosely similar to Spoiler's in XCX, not that it at all could be related. The closest I found was Grenada Medium, which wasn't all that close.

That got me looking at armor I never really did, because I tended to assign as fashion armor whatever each character started with, and I gave Cross professional but less armory clothes. And, then I noticed this set:

How is this bona-fide armor and not a casual wear swimsuit? Meredith & Co. is the Arms Manufacturer whose flavor is "reverse-engineered Ganglion-inspired designs", the feet are even partly bare on the bottom. I don't recall Luxaar or any Prone wearing anything like this.

That's uh, pretty interesting armor. You're right though, how is it not swimwear. Seems like it'd be good for some deep but not too deep diving (the mask maybe provides oxygen?). 

 

[WeAreNewcastle1053]

3 hours ago, Armagon said:

Bruh, that's tame lmao. The series isn't really that fanservicey for the most part.

I have indeed seen worse, but it reminds me of this:

especially with the red-haired girl (Neptunia artwork).

[Shrimpica]

9 hours ago, WeAreNewcastle1053 said:

Jeez, I can't get over how some of these (probably teenage) girls are so oversexualised/fanservicey. Neptunia looks kinda alright... but the others need some work!

Ummm
none of these in the art are really fanservicey, except for maybe Uzume (red hair), and she's Neptune's pre predecessor. And we already saw Neptune live for ~30 Years.

[Strullemia]

20 hours ago, Armagon said:

• Gunvolt Chronicles comes out tomorrow. A love me some good Inti Creates 2D action.
• Atelier Ryza came out in Japan today but the West has to wait a whole month. It looks good.
• Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, because i never played the original.
• Rune Factory 4 Special because this series died and then rose from the grave.
• Rune Factory 5 for the same reason.
• Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive because obviously. I have never been more hyped to see a shoulder.

Oh, Rune Factory might also be a buy. I have the fourth game on the 3DS but I never finished it because my R button barely works anymore.

16 hours ago, Shrimperor said:

She has that Date A Live look (yeah I know they're the same artist).

[Armagon]

@DragonFlames @Shrimperor we have release dates for the DX versions of the Atelier Dusk trilogy

That's........not a very good release date for me. It's releasing smack in the middle of Tokyo Mirage Sessions and Rune Factory 4 Special. We'll see how things go but i may not be able to jump into the Dusk trilogy right away.

[DragonFlames]

15 hours ago, WeAreNewcastle1053 said:

Jeez, I can't get over how some of these (probably teenage) girls are so oversexualised/fanservicey. Neptunia looks kinda alright... but the others need some work!

You shouldn't look at their goddess forms, particularly Vert's (the blonde girl on the upper right of that image - would be right up Mangs' alley, if he knew), if that's already a turn-off for you (which, if it is, I understand completely, btw. Not everything is for everyone).
As Armagon and Shrimperor already said: the series isn't even that bad with it's fanservice (tbh, I was reluctant to try the series at first due to what I've heard about the fanservice).
As for the teenage thing, Megadimension Neptunia VII basically confirms that they (at least the black-haired girl Noire) aren't in their teens. In one scene, she complains about someone making it seem like she's getting "involved with a high-schooler". Another scene has them say that the goddesses are practically ageless so long as they have access to their goddess forms.
But yes, the games do have fanservice, I won't deny that. They do make fun of it for all it's worth, like every Anime and JRPG trope.

9 hours ago, Armagon said:

They are really good games. I do remember you saying you aren't good with 2D platformers and the Azure Striker Gunvolt series is basically a spiritual successor to Mega Man Zero so it might not be your cup of tea. Still though, the first game has a demo of which you can download on the 3DS eShop so if you wanna give it a test run, you can.

Perhaps I will do that. Maybe it will be a 2D platformer I don't suck at. Neptunia RPG was already a pleasant surprise and I BS'ed my way through the Subspace Emissary of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, so... who knows?

9 hours ago, Armagon said:

Bruh, that's tame lmao. The series isn't really that fanservicey for the most part.

Yup.
Though we shouldn't pretend panty shots and bath scenes don't exist. Because they do.
And Megadimension Neptunia VII adds boob physics into the mix. Even on Uni and Blanc.

58 minutes ago, Armagon said:

@DragonFlames @Shrimperor we have release dates for the DX versions of the Atelier Dusk trilogy

That's........not a very good release date for me. It's releasing smack in the middle of Tokyo Mirage Sessions and Rune Factory 4 Special. We'll see how things go but i may not be able to jump into the Dusk trilogy right away.

Looking forward intensifies.

[Armagon]

So yesterday, I was browsing through Alrest Records, which is this big artbook for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Torna ~ The Golden Country. Some pretty neat stuff I found in there so I wanted to share. Buckle up fellas, this post is gonna be a long one.

So first off, I was very disappointed to find out that we were robbed of a good Dahlia design.

Now if you don't know, when it came to Rare Blades, they were designed by various different artists. In comparison, the main characters were designed by Masatsugu Saito while the villains were designed by Tetsuya Nomura. Anyway, when it came to Rare Blades, Monolith Soft only gave the illustrators one rule: as long as it fits the specified weapon type and element, you can design whatever you want (provided it, you know, doesn't hurt the game's age rating). So I would like to know why this monstrosity was chosen for Dahlia's final design instead of any of the three, way better designs above.

Speaking of being robbed

we were robbed of caped Morag. Now Morag's final design is basically this but without the cape but i really wish they kept the cape. Morag's already a badass character and everyone knows capes makes characters look even more badass.

It looks like there were plans for Dromarch to be a fire Blade at one point

but i can see why they didn't go with it. Nia is the first party member to join Rex's adventure and Rex already has Pyra so having two fire Blades at the start of the game would've been redundant, even if Fire -> Fire -> Fire is a Blade Combo. It's also why Morag doesn't join until later, because her Blade is Brighid, a fire Blade. By then, you should have a nice balance of Blades so getting another main fire Blade wouldn't be a bad thing. Here's Dromarch's final design (he's a water Blade).

So this next one is pretty interesting

It's Haze in a Praetor outfit. And i don't like it. I mean i do but......if you've played both Alrest games.......you know.

Here we have concept Pyra, which you may have seen floating around before, except Alrest Records actually has her in full

and honestly, i actually wish they went with this instead. Her final design isn't bad by any means but I just like this one more.

On the flip side of the Aegis, Mytha's concept designs aren't that different from what she ends up looking like in the final product

I do like the wings on the design on the top left though.

Now here we have a concept look at Addam

and he kinda looks like a Hoshidian in this. Which isn't too surprising actually, given that, at least visually, the Kingdom of Torna is Japanese-inspired. I say visually because the names of Tornan names and Tornan characters are all but Japanese (aside from Jin). Here's Addam's final design for comparison.

Now here we have a pretty interesting design for a scrapped Blade

why is it interesting? Because we may have seen a remnant of this design in Xenoblade 2

What's also pretty interesting is that one of the concept designs for this Blade's core crystal is Zohar-shaped, just like the Aegieses.

Some Agate designs

Now her final design is pretty much what you see at the top but this one also has concepts for Agate without her headgear and with a mask, resembling Face Nemesis from Xenoblade 1.

Here we have Ursula, the adorable, bear-taming ice child with the worst sidequest in the game

Looks like there were plans to have her be more older in appearance before settling on her younger, finalized design. There was also this i found

A very simple but very wholesome sketch of Ursula hugging Pyra. Wish we got to see this in the game (it probably wasn't planned at all and it's more of just a simple sketch from the illustrator).

Now these concept designs of Gormott are pretty interesting. The titan itself is much more "reindeer" in appearance (though the final design does maintain the inspiration) However, it seems that Gormott was originally going to be more "jungly", similar to Makna Forest in Xenoblade 1 or the continent of Noctilum in Xenoblade X. I mean, hey, it seems that the village of Torigoth itself was supposed to be on tree, like the Nopon settlements of previous games. I.....can't really tell what's happening in the bottom right image though. Looks ominous. In the end though, they went with the wide grassy plains, which makes sense as the first big areas you can explore in each Xenoblade games are always wide grassy plains.

Now these next two are interesting. Here we have Uraya

and Tantal

Now what's really interesting about these two is that some of the concept art suggests that the two may have originally been external Titans. Basically, most nations in the game exist on the exterior of the Titan. However, the Titans Uraya and Genbu (yeah, the Kingdom of Tantal didn't name themselves after their Titan) are "interior Titans". They swim underneath the cloud sea so as such, the people and wildife live inside the Titan. Sunlight reaches the interior due to both Titans being somewhat transparent. Which of course, is what we got for both of them in the end.

And good God, can we talk about concept Mor Ardain?

It looks so sick. Man, i wish they went with this instead of it's final design. Just like the final design though, this one seems to also have somewhat metallic features, which makes sense given how the Empire of Mor Ardain technologically modifies their Titans.

Now before we get into spoilers, i wanna share some of the official illustrations i found.

This one, i really like. It's the gang camping out in the wildness of Tantal. 

Praixs and Theory (who you can see in the image above in the bottom left) were also given swimsuits 

and it makes me wish Rare Blades actually had swimsuits you could get as rewards from the Land of Challenge, instead of just having the swimsuits be limited to the main characters.

Now this next part will be spoilers for chapters 7 through 10 of Xenoblade Chronicles 2! You have been warned.

Spoiler

Reminder that we still don't have full official Pneuma art. 

We also have Klaus' concept design

it had him sitting on a throne and i'm glad they didn't do that. One of the most interesting things about Klaus is that he's perceived as a God by the Alrestians......but he's not. Other than his......unique situation, he's no different than any other human.

On the official illustration side, we have this *ahem* lovely illustration of the Aegis girls in swimsuits

Makes me wish Pneuma got her own swimsuit in the game but i know why she didn't.

Then there's this

An illustration showing the absolute scale of the world. The Land of Morytha at the bottom then there's Alrest and finally, Elysium. We actually get to see how high up Alrest is compared to Morytha and given that Xenoblade 2 takes place in a post apocalyptic Earth, well, maybe the failed Conduit experiment fucked up the planet beyond just dimensionally dislocating everyone. Because i feel like living at that altitude shouldn't be possible but it's very likely Alrestians and the wildlife are more resilient compared to normal humans and wildlife. There's also some nice "Heaven, Earth, Hell" imagery going on in that image.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you want to see the rest of the artbook for yourself, here's the link. Just keep in mind the artbook contains spoilers for all of Xenoblade 2 and Torna ~ The Golden Country. So like Xenogears' Perfect Works, consider it something to treat yourself too after completing the Alrest games.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DragonFlames]

Not gonna lie: character design-wise, the Xeno franchise looks pretty darn awesome.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Got the Atelier trilogy from the PS store for my PS3 about three years ago,  and till today, I have not touched one of the parts yet. I aost forgot I have these games. Same goes for the first Devil May Cry parts. They look good in my inventory, but only have played very little of the first part yet. 

That said I also must add these games to my backlog list, which means it would be a total of about 20 unfinished games right now. 

[DragonFlames]

1 minute ago, Ingrid Brandl Galatea said:

Got the Atelier trilogy from the PS store for my PS3 about three years ago,  and till today, I have not touched one of the parts yet. I aost forgot I have these games. Same goes for the first Devil May Cry parts. They look good in my inventory, but only have played very little of the first part yet. 

That said I also must add these games to my backlog list, which means it would be a total of about 20 unfinished games right now. 

Oof. 20 games sounds rough.
Do play them. Atelier games are great fun.

Also thumbs up for that Annette pfp!

Edited September 26, 2019 by DragonFlames

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I played Shallie for a bit. 

It was almost too cute for my standards.

I will play them sometime....... I just do not know when. 

Have to finish my Blue Lions maddening run (halfway through) and Trails series first (including Cold Steel III). 

 

And thanks, this is the most adorable Three Houses image I have seen yet. 

 

[DragonFlames]

Just now, Ingrid Brandl Galatea said:

And thanks, this is the most adorable Three Houses image I have seen yet.

Most adorable image of the most adorable character.

---

If you're not aware, the entire Atelier series spans about 19 games now with the 20th on the horizon. And that's just the main series. The games are mostly divided into trilogies - Dusk, Mysterious, Arland - though the latter is actually a quadrology, I think would be the word -, so you don't need to play the very first Atelier game ever to understand newer ones, which is great.