Sire

Never did beat this game. I think I got to the first maze section and never progressed past that...

Warning: Flashing Lights (if you watch the video). -- A collection of music performed by Frank Klepacki on his live stream, known for his Command and Conquer works, among others.

Skadi obtained! Now my Valkyries and Atalante will be able to function well with looping... as soon as I get all the mats needed to get Skadi up to 10/10/10. I'm gonna need a lot of Void Dust... In the meantime, I managed to get NP2 Circe, Np2 Fran, and a Yan Qing. At the moment I'm out of EXP, but the Christmas Lotto should solve that issue.

Seeing the hype around Darkest Dungeon 2 makes me miss the first one a bit. I think I only beaten the first delve into the "Darkest Dungeon" before moving onto other things. -- The setting and atmosphere is great. The RNG factor sucks though as and the game has mechanics deliberately designed to screw over the player. Unlike Dark Souls where skill can overcome difficulty, in DD you can easily get screwed over due to RNG. (I think Radiant Mode solves some of the issues, but then one is perceived as a coward for choosing such a difficulty.) -- That said, a part of me does want to go back and fully complete the first game. I need to also get the DLC at some point as well...

I don't play, but heard the music elsewhere and it's fairly nice.

Welp, spent all my Quartz for Space Ishtar, and any savings I had went on sudden rolls for MHXA so she could be reunited with MHX. I guess the ability to manifest snacks and nap was stronger than the power of friendship since MHXA decided to not appear for 2-seperate 10 rolls. Perhaps she may answer the call another day, for today it is a sleep day. Now I'm just tossing whatever scraps I have towards Skadi in the hopes that I get one. While I could function without Skadi, being able to Quick Loop and generate Crit Stars for Super Quick Crits is rather useful. -- That said, I am starting to see nodes that do not work well with looping setups (currently doing LB4 Free Quests for quartz and completion), so I think my boy Arash may have to continue his stellar work for a while longer. Looking into 2022, Artoria Caster in August is the most major thing for me, followed by potentially trying to NP2 Kama in July. There's of course other servants and impulse rolls, but considering I have NP2 Ishtarin available having more options to loop with Caster Artoria wouldn't hurt.

Finally finished the main story of Saber Wars II. -- Overall, I loved it. While the Seraph event still remains supreme, Saber Wars II is definitely up there in the top events for me regarding story and lore. Gameplay was relatively standard, although I am relieved that the missions are fairly easy to go through. I just finished the Liz Bounty Quest, and it was somewhat of a pain as I didn't 3-turn it as expected. I ended up using a Command Seal to get off an extra NP from Space Ishtar, and popped in Herc in the back without his CE for discount insurance. In the end, Mash finished the fight by bashing Hero Liz twice with Brave chains. I have yet to do the Dark Rounds or the Galaxy Guardian CQ. I'm hoping I'll have somewhat of an easier time doing so, although MHXX being a Foreigner means that Herc Insurance will likely be worthless. -- EDIT: Galaxy Guardian complete. It went much more smoother than I thought. // I decided to use Melt as my DPS, buffed her up, and then sent her to the backline. I slowly chipped away at MHXX's health in the first phase, and Melt easily cleaned up second phase. I guess I was nervous that Melt would not do enough damage and the fact I was stalling the first bar, but it turned out I had nothing to fear. // Now to just get the mats to try out Dark Rounds... -- Edit 2: Dark Rounds complete. It is definitely an RNG CQ. First attempt was completely shut down by RNG due to the formation requirements, and the second attempt required lots of resets to prevent my DPS (Space Ishtar) from dying. In the end I had to use my three backup command seals to finish off Gawain as I am not thrilled at the prospect of trying to do the CQ normally and hoping for good RNG. // Now all that is left for me is to clean out the shop...

Playing through the event casually and am loving it thus far (just finished the Queens story arc). -- Man, I remember hearing about how people did not like Saber Wars II. I guess people expected another Halloween event at the time instead, but I'm loving the event and don't mind it replacing Halloween for a year. (I suppose it helps that I am indifferent to Liz, who tends to be the star of the Halloween events.) My Space Ishtar is stuck at Level 70, but once I progress far enough with the missions I should get the Blood Tearstones she needs for ascension. I just hope I have enough mats to finish ascending her to 90... -- As for skills, I'm bottlenecked by feathers. Everything else looked good when I raised her first skill up to 9.

Recently I've gotten back into Advance Wars, and started playing the first GBA title again from scratch. (My original GBA copy was pre-owned, so starting anew was a fresh experience.) I finished the Normal Campaign, and age definitely comes with experience. I remember slogging it out in the last few missions, taking around 30 days (turns) to clear, but now I even managed to S-Rank these missions. I somehow even S-Ranked Rivals, which is a map I never played but know about from other players. My final campaign rank was S-Rank, 960 Points. I could have improved some missions, while others I was amazed that I somehow secured an S-Rank. -- My main change was knowing how useful regular Tanks, Anti-Air, and Battle Copters are. I believe before I would just only rely on Medium Tanks and Bombers, with the AA tossed in as necessary. Turns out having 2 Tanks is generally more useful than 1 Medium Tank, and you can get them out sooner. -- Also, proper APC usage. I usually didn't bother with APCs, but after seeing how proper usage of them can improve the capture game, it helped immensely. Also, in AW1, sacrificial APCs are a thing since the AI has them high on the priority list of targets for some reason. -- Lastly, knowing that Technique can be handled by spamming Infantry near the mission's completion to make up for any potentially lost units during the match. -- The previous playstyle was the norm for me even through Dual Strike and Days of Ruin (I never got around to finishing AW2 as that campaign seemed like a bunch of War Room missions strung together.) Seeing Advance Wars PvP and revisiting some of the stuff of Advance Wars by Web definitely helped me become a better player, as well as my now deeper understanding of the mechanics. I plan on replaying the Normal Campaign two more times so I can unlock the other COs and see almost every variant/mission the original game has to offer. As for the Advance Campaign, I plan on playing through that as well, although I'm uncertain if I will do all the routes there. // I still want to eventually move on to playing the Advance Wars 2 campaign, even though I have a great love for the original. - - - - - - - - - - It's a shame that the AW 1&2 Reboot got delayed as I was looking forward to its December release, but at least now I can brush up on my skills by playing the original games. I don't think the originals will become obsolete as their pixel art style still looks great to this day, and the original AW had the "Strategic Advisor Avatar" which is ditched in the remake (Andy seems to take over that role.)

Decided to go for NP2 Space Ishtar, even with Skadi on the horizon. Spent 210 Quartz, got... -- NP2 Space Ishtar -- NP2 Calamity Jane -- Fionn -- +1 Valkyrie (NP3 now) -- +1 Kerry (NP 3 now) -- 3 5-Star Event CEs -- 7 4-Star Event CEs -- 6 3-Star Event CEs Used up almost all of my Quartz and Fragments, so I'll need to get some more before Skadi hits. -- I'm tempted to turn the extra copy of Calamity Jane into a Rare Prism, as I don't think I need extra NP copies of Servants I don't use/favor. I'll still keep the NP1 for collection purposes though (says the guy who got rid of Drake for emergency Rare Prisms and NP2 D'Eon). Sadly I don't have enough mats to max ascension S!Ishtar because I don't have the Blood Tears. I doubt I'll be able to max her skills, so its back to farming mats for me.