Interdimensional Observer

Need a depressant? So remember, happiness lay in the cold, dead past. ...Are you serious? Cleavage resulted in the salvation of humanity?

For, uh, reasons, people are wanting to get me stuff. The issue is my interests are quite narrow, pretty much just video games, and I'm not feeling like there's a whole lot of new stuff that'd appeal to me. The one title I think I'm set on is Trials of Mana, which I hope is good, because even that I'm uncertain about. My list of games that belong in the hesitant "I'll wait, for a sale" category: Civilization V I've been really liking Civ VI, it's addictive in a way, and given all the critics and whiners I've seen saying V is better than VI, I'd be willing to try it. This are available for MacOS on Steam, so I'd make an account just to buy it. But, considering the two expansions are a sine qua non, I'd end up spending $50 for a 2010 game. But would Steam still put this game that finished getting content in 2013 on sale? Civilization: Beyond Earth Same as Civ V, but this game is much harder to justify without a sale because I've read again and again it feels significantly unfinished. I'd get it mostly for the sci-fi aesthetic, the idea of cities built over water is cool and so are the Affinities. $60 for this sounds like a con job. Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition Yes I like the game. The problem? Memory. I remember too much of the experience, and I still have the Wii original. It'd feel like a real double dip, and Melia Connected To Shulk doesn't justify it by itself given its short length. Hence waiting for a sale. Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker Similar case to XCDE, I played this game five times and I remember it well. The difference is that I sold my copy of the DS version, and this is already only $20 being a 3DS game. The Record Breaker scenario sounded cool and substantial -but then someone told me my favorite ending got stabbed in the back by the new content . Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town This is the remake of a 2003 GBA game, that in-turn was a remake of a 1999 PS1 game, whose cast was largely of characters recast from a 64 game released earlier in the same year. It's gonna feel dated and overly simply, my childhood memories aren't going to hold up very well. I don't really remember any dialogue from all those years ago either, I don't know how I enjoyed it then, but the script might have as well have been written in Sumerian, cuneiform and all. The old artstyle I'm nostalgic about is gone too, they rehired the old artist, but they can't draw that way any more, and the new stuff isn't bad... just not good. Yet, I wouldn't mind trying to reconnect with the franchise, I just want to wait until it's less costly to do so, because this due to the fundamental of age should not be a $50 game. Mega Man X Legacy Collection I played MMX1 on my Wii U via the Virtual Console. It was good, and I only ever save-stated outside of boss rooms for infinite redos without having to go through the entire level again, and against the final boss. But, I'm still a wee bit concerned about difficulty and the absence of restore points. It's on-sale right now, but I'm still paranoid wary. And there are definitely more titles out there that I'm forgetting how hesitant I am about them, despite a measure of desire. And then there's the entire indie market, where I'm like "Oh, the reviews say it's good, but I don't exactly trust Indies for no explicable reason other than sheepishness, and because they can be sad, which I don't like." Nintendo, please start making new things I want again. This famine in new stuff is making me question a life beyond video games, and I fear the unknown.

It's playable on my Wii U and Super Mario Party wasn't out at the time when I bought it. Thats the only reason I play it. My Mario Party history started with 3, followed by 4 and 5, DS, Island Tour, and then 8. I still have a GameCube and 4 & 5, but why bring that up when I still use the Wii U and the Wii Remotes are more fun in a way? Not sure which is my actual favorite. I thought I heard people once praise 3 as the best though, and that 6 is better than 5, besides 9 and 10 being bad. I'll give a half-point to 5 though for having the Star Spirits, being the Paper Mario 64 fan I am. Nintendo really should release an anthology of the pre-8 Mario Parties, but then why buy any new ones when they're all so similar? Thats why they never will I think. Not sure of Advance b/c I never played it, though I'll agree Island Tour is bad. DS however I will defend as good, and the set of old Tetris-esque puzzle games that don't end are a fun time-waster. I think they can, at least in one Mario Party, but nothing happens and Bowser just goes away if you get that.

I didn't know nor meant to do that. And I understand that perhaps a few additions- this grappling hook use in dungeons I hear of for instance, could not have been DLC'ed in. I've never played FFXV, I bear no intense dislike towards it. it was more complaining about Square resorting to use of two fantasy tropes as old as Dungeons & Dragons- crystals and summons, in almost every game, and yet treat their games so seriously. I understand a franchise sticking to its old story staples again and again, Monolith and Enix do. But Square puts on airs at times of modern mainline Final Fantasy being "a momentous story that transcends all arts and human emotion", and yet they're still stuck in shiny rockland, it's more than a little incongruous to me. Dragon Quest doesn't try that, and Xeno can get philosophical, but I don't think it pretends to be a masterpiece in the canon of humanity. That, and I was trying to capture some of the frustration the average Square employee may have felt working on a game that had a 10-year development cycle. Wikipedia dedicates an entire page to the creation of the game. Oh, and I forgot another elephant- Pokemon. Sword and Shield as of June 2020 have sold 18 million copies, two million of which went out the door on the first three days alone. Amazing how good a game can be when you forgot to leave the computer arrow thingy out of the credits for just a brief second, and when the DLC gets praise for limited inclusion of a properly-sized Wailord. I don't think this is what you meant, but this came to mind:

By comparison, the Persona 5 you mentioned in the same breath sold 4.6 million by the end of just the last month, adding together both the original version and "You Should've Waited Idiots, Atlus Doesn't Do Persona DLC Expansions" Edition. Both of these numbers also blow away XC2, which as of March of last year had sold 1.73 million. That published by SE but not developed by them "homage to the SNES-era" RPG- Octopath Traveler, factoring in the PC port, has sold over 2 million. For a few more, somewhat incomplete, modern JRPG sales numbers: That Atelier Ryza game thats the best selling in that franchise has sold only 420 thousand copies. While that Cold Steel III game sold only 87 thousand copies in Japan when it initially released, I don't have global sales for this game, but presumably it's nowhere near 1mil. Rune Factory 4 Special I have no sales for, but the 3DS original version sold over 150 thousand copies specifically in Japan, which made it the highest selling in the franchise at that point. Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse I don't have full numbers for, but the Japanese sales for that game were about half of SMTIV, which had globally sold 600 thousand copies. I can't get sales numbers on Etrian Odyssey, but it appears not a single game had sold even 200k. By the end of 2016, before Nexus and the international release of V, the franchise- 9 titles factoring in the Mystery Dungeon spinoffs at that point, had sold 1.6 million altogether. Mario and Luigi: Dream Team, is the last title in that franchise that I can get global numbers for, 2 million. Annnnnnnnnnd Final Fantasy XV sold 8.9 million copies. This, despite a No Good Really Bad It Was Insane F*** The Crystals Lick Bahamut and BDSM Corporate Square Development Hell that should've sunk it. *sigh* How it easy it is being the top dog. Oh, and modern Fire Emblem, which is JRPG-ish in vibe. 1.9 mil for Awakening, 1.84 million on Fates (not sure how to count that with the route divide), 2.87 for Three Houses, 1 million for Fire Emblem Warriors. And maybe 200 thousand for Tokyo Mirage Sessions factoring in the Switch port?

Not sure I can find definite numbers on this, but according to Wikipedia, at the end of last year, the game had sold 5.5 million copies. Of these, at least 2.38 million were sold in Japan, so probably about half the sales of the game would've come from aboard. Not bad, particularly when 100% of the prior game's sales came from Japan, and I don't think Reggie's forced effort to sell IX went over well either.

Speaking of Pokemon, one of my favorite tracks is this: It makes me feel... sentimental? Like I want to just melt down my individuality and assimilate into some happy global interconnected whole. Which brings to mind this quote I've seen recently: "One day there will be no borders, no boundaries, no flags, and no countries and the only passport will be the heart." –Carlos Santana

Sorry to hear the game is a giant disappointment and that your treasured franchise has sunk into an abyss from which it cannot recover. The chicken joke reminds me of this: https://youtu.be/OCm1deOZZms And it's about as "fun" as your opinion of this Japanese for "Beginnings" game is high.

*Yawwwwwn* Someone made me see the sunrise this morning. I don't dislike it, I like the sight and roar of the ocean and the emergence of the golden sun disc from the water, it's the act of getting up in the first place thats the problem. Sounds like a franchise thats become a follower. Operating on the notion I've seen before of "turn-based games can't possibly sell, action is where it's at!".

Add in the possibility of him being his dad.

I continued to watch the one longplay of Baten Kaitos Origins I've slowly been working through. Then I saw someone again who reminded me of... current politics. Fails to pronounce certain words with a rough and limited lexicon in general, wants money and status above all else even if it comes from foreigners with ulterior motives, has little in the way of a real moral compass. On the happier side of things, I played some old Mario Party 8 while someone is visiting for the time. it's fun even when you lose, which because luck ends up freakishly happening. And we talked memories of Mario Party experiences from bygone eras, the horrors of Right Oar Left endure in our consciousnesses to this day. Like the best Scotch, the best experiences in games aren't necessarily those you have alone while sampling from the very finest, they can come from the cheaper stuff shared in good company. I watched a little of a Mario Party 1 LP afterwards, because the oldest one I've actually played is 3, and I was unsure of how the oldest MP have held up. A little surprisingly, the formula was just as solid in the very first game, it looks entirely playable to this day. Sure the graphics have aged like rotting fish, but the boards themselves from the 64 era have a certain charm from their 2D pre-rendered aesthetic:

Thinking on elevation, you could go in an entirely different direction with separate dimensional planes units can shift between. Obstacles and terrain could change between planes, so one plane where the geography is open could be contrasted with a plane where the terrain in the exact same spots is swampy or narrowing. Units could see units on the other planes, but with limited interaction at best.

To be honest, I never really courted anyone in an RF, not that I remember very well. I usually just did a tour of the town every day and talked to everyone twice, somehow that worked for a lot of FP gain. But sticking to this formula was a little taxing in a way, I think some older Story of Seasons games had "neglect FP loss", if you hadn't talked to characters in a while, maybe that go me paranoid.

Say hello to Adrestian Acoustics: Edelgard, a refresher Edelgard placed on a modern music banner, with her specifically going in the "heavy metal rocker with a guitar" direction. ...Because "axe" can be used to describe an electric guitar? -Forced joke I know.

Weird, considering both 2 and 3 required you finish every bachelorette's request before you could marry them. The last one in 2 being the moment to propose and the last in 3 being where Micah reveals he's half-monster. There is a limit of one per day per source (there are three different places requests come from) in RF3, but I don't think there was a daily limit in 2.

As in the bulletin board with requests you could take up every day?

The first two games have no dating. Frontier invented dating with an 8 LP requirement, the bachelorettes can't turn you down. You need to be on a date when you propose for the woman to accept it. Rune Factory 3- Get to 7 LP, put the girl on your team, and bring her to one of the four scenic spots outside a dungeon. Thats it, she can't refuse. Tides of Destiny requires dating for marriage like Frontier, and you can't start dating until 9 LP. If you're Aden, ask for a date at 10 LP, wait two weeks for the date to happen, get the ring, do another date and propose there. Sonia gets proposed to, so just pick the right dialogue choices and the guy can propose on the first date. There is no last few LP slowdown, and I believe all three games permit dating multiple characters without any issues. Did they keep a quest system intact though? I thought those were sufficient in 2 & 3 for future wife characterization.

As the game that introduced me to EO, I would disagree. But I really should replay EOIV first. The problem with that though is Only. 1. Save. File. I feel like I'd have to replay U2 with a more synergetic team too. My Classic run there was sooooo dysfunctional: Landy, Beast, War Magus, Survivalist, Sovereign, coincidentally a plain worse version of the Story team. And my misunderstanding of how chasers worked meant I had to revamp the Landy into a Axe user some ways into the game. Maybe a team of Dark Hunter and Hexer plus... I can't decide darn it! Palmchemist sounds fun but too risky. This said, I do give U2 points for what was the best overall set of stratums in terms of visual design. And HP bloat aside, the labyrinth puzzles I suppose were better than The Millennium Girl's. Sounds like RF4 reallllllly messed up here. No prior game had chance-based dating.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if the paralogues were actually related to the dead characters in question. Flanberto of House Eclaire died? Now you have to have sort out the messy repercussions that it has on the clan. Or, poor sweet Tiramisuia soul cannot rest after passing, and lest you want her to haunt you for the rest of your life, you must do what must be done to appease her undying existence.

Sorry, wasn't sure how much you had looked into things. For the bolded, in North America, I don't know about Europe, there are a bunch of Etrian Odyssey demos on the eShop, you could try them out for an hors'doeuvre for those games. However, Etrians tend to take some time to take get going, the fun of character builds take until sometime in the second or even third stratum to beautifully blossom -though Q2 lacks a class system. The point being that EOs can be rough at the very start.

I haven't played either Persona Q, but the "Q" is derived from Sekaiju no Meikayuu- emphasis on pronunciation of "kayuu". That is the Japanese name of the Etrian Odyssey franchise, an Atlus DS-3DS franchise of new old-fashioned first-person dungeon crawlers. To break it down for you: Persona Q is a mix of the characters of Persona with the gameplay of Etrian Odyssey (and admittedly, SMT began as first-person dungeon crawlers). Persona Q1 features the characters of Persona 3 & 4. Q2 adds Persona 5's cast to the mix- taking the center narrative stage with 3&4 are just there. In the case of Q1, you can choose to begin with either 3 or 4's cast + an original character, you'll meet up with the group you didn't pick a little later. Q2 starts you the 5 crew + P3P FeMC, and then adds the cast of 3, and lastly 4's I think. You have a hub in the Velvet Room where you return to rest after stints in the labyrinth, drawing your own maps, fighting random encounters, and tackling powerful enemies visible on in the labyrinth called FOEs. Each of the stratums in each game is topped with a boss battle. Story-wise, the games aren't worth it I'm told, it's thin stuff, but Q2 might be slightly better. Character-wise, the first game I'm informed was really really bad with the characterization of everyone, despite the 3 meets 4 interactions in themselves not being a bad thing. Maybe the sequel was better with its fanservice? All playable characters from each game is in (barring that new Royal girl), and all are perfectly usable, you can bring up to 5 at once into battle, plus a navigator girl. Each character gets a distinct stat spread- physicals gonna physical, mages gonna mage, and some fixed skills. Each navigator has unique abilities. Everyone can equip a Sub-Persona, increasing their HP and SP and allowing for some skill customizability. At least one of the games has Skill Cards for yet more adjustable skill slots too. Compared to actual Etrian Odyssey, the Qs are fairly easy I've read, although EO on the highest difficulty in every game is tough. There is a problem in the lack of a postgame section of the labyrinth in either Q (once the final boss is dead, there is nothing left to do), Etrian usually has one and the absence sounds disappointing to an EO fan. Dungeon design might be iffy at points, something about people loathing Q1's "Pride of Inaba" labyrinth or something. The casts of Persona 2 do not appear in either game, I would love the opportunity to see Tatsuya taken from the events of EP but Maya, Eikichi and Lisa come from a point in time prior to IS's end, the interactions that could result from that.

Sci-fi FE. I don't want "fantasy, with a pinch of lasers and giant robots", I want full sci-fi. Going all mecha is unnecessary, because then I'd just play Super Robot Wars. I'd prefer we stick to non-mechanized on-foot combat, I really want lightsabers and plasma guns and maybe replacing shapeshifters or some mages we get aliens or humans who have chosen to adapt to alien biology and environments. Horses and pegasus/wyverns would no longer exist, replaced by futuristic motorcycles and hoverboards/jetpacks. Also, how about android allies who can die and return the next fight no problems provided you pay a significant repair fee? As long as the memory core is intact, you can just upload them into a new robot body. Oh wait, gameplay. How about "open-world FE"? Peak "open world is awesome, let's make games with it while wearing blindfolds!" has past I guess, but FE still hasn't tried it. It works for adventure, action, action-adventure, and RPG games owing to their format, but FE being turn-based on a big grid makes it verrrrrry difficult to see how things could effectively transition. That and SoV's monster battles in dungeons feel mindless and are simple, yet play on Classic and you still have to devote brainpower to them. Considering the flak given to the non-combat aspects of 3H, should FE really have exploring a pretty world involved? For FE, I think the way "open world" would work would be with a focus on multiple, unconnected storylines that you could choose to complete. Some stories could have splits in them, or opposing sides you could pick from, but there would be no overarching narrative. I think there would have one particular scenario that serves as the "main" one, something that drives your entry into the world and provides the feelings of a final battle and conclusion followed by credits, but that wouldn't be so predominant over all the others that it feels like everything else are mere side-stories. Nonetheless, good luck finding a way of avoiding the bugbear of map-reuse or poor design! FE has tended to stick to ~30-40 battles per game for a reason, and open-world would almost intrinsically surpass that.

Who said anything about standing there doing nothing? Offscreen, he as he took in the view, Alm said to himself "Life is beautiful. But what is life?". From that question, Alm asked to be left alone and so it was. He then shorn himself of unnecessary clothing and bearing with the incoming elements and lack of food and water, proceeded in contemplation of metaphysics, which led into epistemology, which led into ethics. After eighty days of this, Alm knew all there is to know, he took the new name "Jesartha", but then chose to hide that name and his new wisdom from the entire world. He did this so as to show all the people who were counting on him what it meant to have to strive to do good, allowing them the hope they could emulate him one day. He believed they would feel despair at the prospect of their personal progression if he came to them as he now truly was- a perfected human being. He then wore his clothes again and asked for food and drink, restoring his thinned form in time for Celica to show up ten days later, hiding even from her, whose fate he already knew for he had seen all that lay ahead, what he had become. Alm had character development -but he kept it a secret until he laid on his deathbed. At which point he spent the last ten and half weeks of his life calmly relaying all of his profound existential knowledge. -- I feel they could've done better, maybe with different characters, breaking 600 sounds entirely feasible to me. But there's no way I could've done this, I've topped out at 300 maybe.

It is the best in this regard, every game since gradually chipped away at the puzzles, although some of ToS's I can see getting on people's nerves. Unfortunately, I consider DotNW to be part of that decline. No, there is nothing that comes to mind. I don't think enemy Mystic Artes can kill you in this game, they leave you at 1 HP, so thats nice, and that makes Marta's Mystic Arte, which heals everyone, a perfect counter. Maybe because the games never force you to master the action? Stringing together lengthy combos and free-running/blocking every enemy attack are ultimately not mandatory. With the 15-per-item limit though, some boss battles have still made survival challenging. Because resurrection spells are slow and waste time you could spend on other spells, once you run out of Life Bottles, you're clinging by a thread in Tales. I've usually never run out, but I have had games where I depleted enough that I run back to restock after every boss battle.

By the "occasional guest", you mean "usually at least one or two of the first ToS crew" will be around. Although back in the day, people complained one freakin' megaton about how the returning characters couldn't equip stuff nor level up. Not that their whine was entirely unreasonable, for if you played the first and liked it, why wouldn't you want the oldies to be as good as the new duo? This said, I did use the old ToS cast almost exclusively on my first run besides the new two and I largely ignored the monsters. That led me to drop the first playthrough entirely nearing the very, very end. Why? That one boss battle that strips you of you non-monster allies. So @lightcosmo do yourself a favor, and train up at least two good monsters. You can teach everything Heal IIRC, and if you can live you can win, so what the monsters are doesn't matter too much. My memory fails me on what I used, but I know one of them was something that wound up as grim reaper. It was the first game to go 3D in the franchise, transitional issues aren't unsurprising. But it has resulted in ToS aging poorly, all the ports it's gotten should've at least upped its combat to ToAb quality, but they haven't.