Chrono Compendium
Zenan Plains - Site Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Boo the Gentleman Caller on December 24, 2022, 06:05:52 pm
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Vidkid and I have had an ongoing chat in the "What are you playing" video game thread, and we have been planning all year for an informal "Let's Play" of a Lunar series video game. Well that time is finally upon us!
We'll be playing through the game separately and somewhat slowly, posting screenshots, thoughts, and general hearty discussion here in this very thread. If you'd like to join in, please feel free! If not, feel free to still to participate in discussions.
About the game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar:_Eternal_Blue
If you aren't familiar with the Lunar series, Eternal Blue is a fantastic jRPG originally released on the Sega CD and later re-released on the PSX as a "Complete" version with updated graphics, events, etc. Although a sequel to Silver Star Story, the two are almost entirely independent.
"The game follows the adventure of Hiro, a young explorer and adventurer who meets Lucia, visitor from the far-away Blue Star. Together they become entangled in Lucia's mission to stop Zophar, an evil, all-powerful being, from destroying the world. During their journey across the world of Lunar, Hiro and Lucia are joined by an ever-expanding cast of supporting characters."
It's a heart-warming story with romance, excitement, danger, and fantastical elements.
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Ah! First of all, Merry Christmas to Boo and everyone else here at the Compendium! Playing any a version of Lunar during Christmas has always been tradition in my house and I'm glad I get to share it with you all here today.
I'm happy that Boo and I chose EBC to play since I haven't played that one in a while. It's a pretty typical game like if you like traditional old-school turn-based RPGs... Personally I enjoy Working Designs' translation and text the most and I re-play their games a lot just because it gives me a chortle every now-and-then. Haha.
A hearty cheers to everyone! I always play something that I know will ring in the new year with a lot of fun so I always choose to play a Lunar game around this time of year. Thanks for joining us on this adventure guys! :)
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Hey, Boo! (I was gonna wait for you to make the first post!) So I guess I'll make the first post in this adventure! Now that the festivities have died down a little bit and I get some winding down time to myself tonight... I'll pop in L2:EBC. So usually I play the game in little chunks. Whenever I start EBC I usually try to get through the opening introduction sequence with Hiro's voiceover (which reminds me a lot of Wild ARMs and Jack's intro) and get to his and Gwyn's house. There's a little dungeon in-between that takes a fair bit of time so I try to get through that, and I fight every monster to level up Hiro and go back to the Althena's Statue for healing if-needed. (The great thing about LUNAR is you can definitely abuse the Althena's Statues for the ultimate of free-healings--and I definitely take advantage of this privilege whenever I can!) I get to Grandpa's house and I kinda take a little rest there before the events in the tower.
The First Session
So the enemies in the desert aren't that hard I just go back to the statue if I'm not feeling confident enough about the next monster. I mentioned abusing the free healing in this game but the one thing I love the most about the LUNAR games is the Save Anywhere feature I catch myself saving whenever I feel like it! If you fight every battle in the desert Hiro will reach level 7 and learn the best of his most basic skill set so definitely try to do-so! If you're unsure where to go next with the Dragonship Destiny parked outside and Your House, try going north to the spire if you just want to explore. I usually talk to the guards in the Destiny then I go inside the house. Try talking to Leo first before Gwyn for a little extra dialogue, then talk to Gwyn first when the game lets you cause Leo will take off if you speak to him. You can interact with a lot of objects here so try to explore a little bit! When gazing at the Blue Spire from up top the outpost I just feed Gwyn whatever dialogue choice cause I don't think it really matters (I'm gonna keep picking the first available option from here on out to make things easier on me on the next playthrough). The books in the basement-library are worth reading if you want a little more backstory!
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I'm glad you made the first post, haha... I haven't started yet, despite my best efforts. Sorry! We ended up doing unplanned running all day yesterday, and I didn't get to bed until 2:30am last night. Had to wrap presents since we ended up on the move all day - it's 11:00am here and we just finished opening presents.
I have to get started on the Christmas ham and associated Christmas dinner, but I'll be playing for 30 minutes to an hour here within the next few hours. I'll post once I do.
:)
EDIT: I've finally got everything configured on my PC for emulation, including cheats. I always hated grinding for GP in this game, so I've worked around that (gwah ha ha). I'm diving in!
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Okay, I'm officially a bit into the game!
First off, I had forgotten how this game opens with a little monologue by a certain character from Lunar: Silver Star Story. Moving straight into the animated intro, this is such quintessential 1990s anime. Everything about it - the characters, the music, the historical diagrams on the walls... and I love it. I'm so enthralled and it's obvious why this game is such a near and dear game to my heart. This enhanced port isn't as good as Silver Star Story Complete, though. Firing this up after so many years, I'm initially a bit jarred by the graphics having not really been upgraded from the SegaCD version (unlike SSS Complete).
Regardless... Poor Luna Lucia in all that cold without being properly dressed, haha...
Once Hiro gives his intro via narration, it's time to go explore! I always liked Hiro and Ruby as characters, and when they're being chased in the initial dungeon, my heart warmed when I heard Burg's theme. This soundtrack never gets old!
I spent most of today trying to get the cheats to work and my controller configured to the emulator, so I'm still exploring the desert valley and haven't quite reached Leo and the ship yet. If I can tonight, I'll play some more and continue catching up.
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All's good, man! Sounds like you had a very festive Christmas, mine was pretty quiet. (as usual)
Yeah a lot of people love the monologue narrator's voice but after hearing it again I think it's just like ok. Don't get me wrong, I love all the voice actors from Working Designs but I don't think this character has "ThE BeSt VoiCe EvEr!1one" like some fans try to claim. Yep, this game is so late-90s - to - early-2000s style of JRPG. It probably has a lot to do with the anime cutscenes and little chibi character sprites. Yah, I noticed that the graphics weren't looking that good on a PS3 + 4K television setup, but I like old games so I think that adds a nice touch, at least the font looks ok to me... that's all that really matters to me.
I try to pick apart each scene. With Lucia, I wonder "Who is Lucia, anyway? Where did she come from? How is she related to Althena in some way?" She mentions that, "It isn't the time for her Awakening." So she knows that she's supposed to awaken from her deep crystallization but now isn't the right time and that something's gone wrong. Personally, I deeply think Lucia is just one of Althena's children that she left behind on the Blue Star to guard it. And along with that comes some of her powers. I don't think she's her 'sister' or anything, or 'another part of Althena' in some way.
Ok. Looks good that we both managed to at least get the game going! :) I'll try to play a little bit more tonight maybe a 30 min. sesh or something! ((I'm having so much fun, Boo!!!))
Edited: Oops! I forgot to touch upon Hiro and Ruby! So Hiro's definitely a lot more talkative compared to Alex in the first game, I think that's one of the major differences. Ruby is a lot like Nall like very smart-mouthed, maybe even moreso if you can believe that! I think they make a great duo too!! Ruby's very helpful in battles as she'll pick off enemies with low HP that're already near-death, so you can count on her as an asset in battles just like a regular playable character. She doesn't heal you like Nall though - she's strictly an offensive character, maybe because of her Fire-element? Don't count on her to heal you in battles if you got used to the first game!!! Hiro's also a really good attacker, just like any JRPG main character you're probably gonna rely on Hiro a lot to do everything like picking off groups or individual enemies! He's reliable-enough to get you through the early stages/portion of the game alone so don't worry! A cheat, - I would suggest just using your magic/skills all the time to pick off enemies quicker and just run back to the nearest Althena's Statue. I learned this after playing the game so much for such a long time.
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Yeah a lot of people love the monologue narrator's voice but after hearing it again I think it's just like ok
This is exactly how I felt. I struggle with it a little, in fact. Out of curiosity, I went back to watch a few cutscenes from Silver Star Harmony, and I think I like that VA for Ghaleon more. Some of the Harmony VAs were really off-putting, but putting them side by side, the Ghaleon VA for Harmony is probably better IMO. It's definitely a bit more generic, but it's also more commanding.
Personally, I deeply think Lucia is just one of Althena's children that she left behind on the Blue Star to guard it. And along with that comes some of her powers. I don't think she's her 'sister' or anything, or 'another part of Althena' in some way.
I've played Silver Star Story, Silver Star Story Complete, and Silver Star Harmony probably a dozen times between the three of them, but I've only ever played Eternal Blue Complete once (and never have I played the original). I need to refresh my memory as I go through the game, but I definitely like the idea of Lucia just being one of what could be more "daughters" of the goddess.
Man, I wonder whatever happened to these VA? I used to love watching the behind the scenes DVDs of Working Design games. Same with Victor Ireland. A lot of them just never went anywhere in the industry and that's heartbreaking to me.
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I still have to play Silver Star Harmony. Oopsies! :) I have it on my PSP Go I think. I just like the Working Designs version that I feel I don't need to play any other copy. lol
Oh don't get me wrong I like that character and voice actor a lot for that ... character, sometimes I get put off by fans saying he's the best voice in the industry, woo woo woo. To be honest, I think that was just a bad reading for the beginning of Eternal Blue Complete. It sounded so rushed to me like they were trying to confine the lines within a short amount of time. That voice actor does a better job when they have time to really elongate and express the words and the loveliness of the sound.
You should definitely try to play Eternal Blue on Sega CD, I played it for the first time in 2016 and if you like the PSX version it's almost identical to the Sega CD version with just different lines of dialogue here-and-there and a different look to ea. character's character sprites. And there's a gameplay feature called Magic Points where you get to expend points on building up your skills and much to the chagrin of many players use them to save the game. (This didn't go over well with a lot of fans. But personally I had no problem w/ it.) Calling Lucia one of Althena's "daughters" is a good take, she definitely looks young and has that naivete about her that definitely fits the qualities of being almost a child-like.
Some of the voice actors have Facebooks. I know Jenny Stigile and Ashley Angel have one. Some of the others I tried to search for, but couldn't find anything. I know I usually save the Making of disc for after finishing the game it's like the cherry on top. Out of all of them I think Ashley was definitely the most successful.
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#2 session
I decided to wait for you. So before I even went near the Blue Spire, I decided to take Gwyn to the Salyan Desert because that's literally the only place to grind right now. There's no other option besides going to the Blue Spire and cont. on with the storyline. The monsters in the spire can be quasi semi-annoying so I decided to just level up a bit, while I wait for you, in the desert you passed through previously where you meet Leo for the first time. I always feel kinda bad just going through it once and not spending more time in there for gaining levels so I just backtracked this time cause I felt like doing so.
Hiro was at level 7 and I gained about three levels. I just went back and forth thru the two screens over and over, stopping at the Althena Statue ea. time. I made sure to always exit nearest to the statue so I can be refreshed to go through a pass again. It may not be important but it's a nice, early starting trick to stock up on Herbs (herbies... as I like to call them), as there is nowhere to buy them right now. Every-so-often after an enemy battle it'll drop 1 Herb so you're def. lucky if you can pick up a few right now lol. I made sure to go under Tactics in the menu and move Grandpa Gwyn forward towards the enemies as his range is pretty short- he mostly winds up missing a turn just getting closer. I did the pass maybe 3-4x it doesn't take that long to clear all the 2 screens.
You don't HAVE to do this but the monsters are just annoying to deal with in the Blue Spire especially at a lower level so it's a nice cheat to level up now, before moving forward with the story. I decided to just muck around a little bit. I usually leave an area when it isn't worth the time to level up one.
I did this for 50 minutes.
I'll look forward to your post hopefully tomorrow to see where you're at! :)
(If you want I can just go ahead and move forward-on before you see this post.)
Edit: #2.5 session
I got bored and had some extra time tonight so I went inside the Blue Spire. I'm at the Althena's Statue in the Blue Spire. The Spire isn't really a good place to really level as the enemies are imo tougher and give the same amount of exp as the ones in the desert. The spire is really tall with a lot of floors so I like to tackle it in one go (as in not leaving). I'm pretty sure you can leave if you want, but why would you? I'd suggest just making a b-line to the Althena's Statue and gathering your thoughts there, on how to proceed forward. Gwyn is a lot like Jessica in the first game he has heal litanies and hits with a mace so use him to heal Hiro before using up a Herb. I like to spend a lot of time with Gwyn as after this he leaves and doesn't join your party ever again. (The game is pretty linear.) He's pretty helpful doe for the most part.
Hiro calls him 'grandpa' but Gwyn has different ears than him, so who knows if they're even related? They just live in the desert together with all the cactuses and cacti. Gwyn's voice makes me gag he's so old. He only learns 2 more magic skills so you might want to level him up if you want to see them, and hear his cry during battle.
I'm in the Spire right now. I'll be waiting for ya! :)
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Sylvan Desert
I encountered the Dragonship Destiny. What an entrance! I always loved the idea of the desert "sandship" -- such a cool motif that fits so well with Hiro (and Gywn) and the archaeologist archetype.
I like the concept of Althena's Guard and the return of the Four Heroes. Also, the character design for White Dragon Knight Leo are so awesome ("How amusing. Not only are you country folk rude and ignorant, but your pets are as well.") Ha! I love his character design, and it's nice seeing the beastmen of SSS show up here.
Random thought: Exploring the desert and leveling up, I hate the walking speed, and the dash mechanic is just so broken.
Gwyn's House
Onto Gwyn's camp, the song reminds me a lot of Meribia. In talking to Leo several times, Ruby mentions that he's 25 and never had a girlfriend. Bahaha! I take it this is moreso smart talk rather than fact, but funny none-the-less.
Reading the books in Gwyn's basement, a few comments:
(1) It's nice to see references to both Magic City Vane and Dragonmaster Alex;
(2) I always thought it was cool that they build on the lore of SSS by explaining that the people of Lunar actually come from the mother world, the Blue Star. I tend to forget that the world of Lunar is literally on a moon, rather than a planet.
(3) one of books mentions Althena returning multiple times,
A Brief History of Althena Volume 1: Glorious Rebirth: Every few hundred years, we are blessed with the return of Althena, the Goddess of beauty and love. Althena leads her children into an era of peace and absolute harmony before returning to the heavens...
...so does this mean that there are possibly untold stories of another child of Althena (like Lucia) having returned between SSS and EB? Lot's of opportunity here for other stories, both after EB and before (but after SSS).
Random thought: I've always LOVED the world maps of Lunar and Chrono Trigger. There are no monsters, and you can really take in the scenery and just chew it up. I also like how, in both CT and SSS, you can see the shadows on the land from the sky. Such small details that I love.
Blue Spire
Now into the Blue Spire... it's always nice seeing familiar enemy types, like slimes and those clthuhu-esque one-eyed monsters (this one is called the 'brainpicker').
I also like how the musical theme of this game is used here again as the dungeon music. Something about the song is so quintessentially old school anime. It reminds me a little of Castle in the Sky for some reason. If you're not familiar with it, it's an old Studio Ghibli film from Japan in the 1980's.
I fought through and reached the garden, which is where I'm going to save for now.
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(Sorry, I had to run to the bank earlier today and pay for something.)
Funny thing is when I first saw advertisements for the game in video game magazines I thought Leo looked the coolest out of everyone- all the characters. Once I actually got the game and he made that entrance I wasn't as impressed lol. I think they're making him out to be a stuffy, castrated ol' guard type of character. His 'look' does look pretty cool though being a beastman and the horn. A lot of beastmen don't actually have horns like Jessica but you do see them with one rarely.
Yeah after playing a lot of RPGs my whole life I realized the character does a lot of walking (and never gets tired, and never has to eat). I thought the dash button is too short but I think they just want you to engage more battles that way rather than simply running away all the time.
What Ruby said about Leo not having a girlfriend yet is a running joke in the game. I think they make Leo out to be the type to take his job seriously and having a relationship wouldn't be in the works. He's also 'The White Knight' so maybe there's a sense of purity involved. Working Designs always delivers lines like that about single men who are getting older and having never been in a serious relationship. Maybe they think that's funny? Or awkward?
Regarding Gwyn's books: yes, this reminds me of Vane's Magic Library. I always look forward to thumbing through each book cause I love text. I think they mention Alex as the last Dragonmaster cause Luna decided to become human, remember? So she gave up her goddess powers and was never reborn again. That's also probably why Vane doesn't float anymore cause the goddess/and her powers isn't there in this game.
I always forget which is Lunar and the Blue Star (btw, Lunar refers to the world, 'LUNAR' refers to the video game itself), but both games always take place on the world of Lunar, a.k.a. the moon.
^ This's actually why I like the lore of LUNAR a lot, cause it closely resembles our own planet.
Awe. Boo, to be honest, I've been thinking about Chrono Trigger a lot too recently cause you giving my favorite RPG so much love makes me wanna reciprocate. :) Maybe we can do another Let's Play! for the Chrono games, or maybe I can just do it myself? Sometimes- At times, I wish I would just listen to my heart and play the RPGs that're my favorites and that I know I'll enjoy re-playing and having a good time with rather than buying new games and playing those...
Yeah there're no monsters on the world map of EBC but there were random encounters in LUNAR: The Silver Star. (Sega CD) I say the less encounters the better, haha. ^_^ I'm a pacifist.
Lol at clthuhu spaghetti monster. Yeah I always try to wrap my mind around what "types" of monsters you fight in LUNAR but they're mostly just like flies and bugs and stuff. Like things you find in your kitchen. Have you noticed when defeating a monster, it turns red and beams upwards? I always think they're going back to the Blue Star.
The music is also another big reason why I like LUNAR? I think it's catchy enough to play in your own head. I don't know too much about music but to me it just sounds very Japanese and Asian? Noriyuki Iwadare did a very good job composing the music if you seen the Making of discs he does seem to have that whole mad, loner, crazy composer weirdo vibe thing going on.
I think I saw Castle in the Sky just once and I don't remember at all too much about it.
I'm about to play some more but I'm gonna think about my write-up first before typing and posting it.
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What Ruby said about Leo not having a girlfriend yet is a running joke in the game. I think they make Leo out to be the type to take his job seriously and having a relationship wouldn't be in the works. He's also 'The White Knight' so maybe there's a sense of purity involved. Working Designs always delivers lines like that about single men who are getting older and having never been in a serious relationship. Maybe they think that's funny? Or awkward?
Then I have this to look forward to because I remember none of it. :D
I think they mention Alex as the last Dragonmaster cause Luna decided to become human, remember? So she gave up her goddess powers and was never reborn again. That's also probably why Vane doesn't float anymore cause the goddess/and her powers isn't there in this game.
Yup, if my memory serves correctly -- at the end of SSSC, Vane ends up falling and is no longer airborne. Later, when Alex rescues Luna, he has to pass through some sort of barrier and give up the powers of the Dragonmaster. Luna regains her senses and it's implied that the power of the Dragon artifacts are gone, having disappeared when Alex passed through the barrier. At least that's what I think I remember, haha...
Funny thing is when I first saw advertisements for the game in video game magazines ...
I actually ended up buying Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete on a whim and I went in totally blind. I had recently gotten a PSX and was really into jRPGs, and I liked the art. I ended up picking up SSSC and Vanguard Bandits just because they looked cool.
...I also remember being grounded as I bought them, and I wasn't allowed to play my PSX for about a week after I got the games. It was summertime, there was no school, so it felt like eons. I spent time listening to the soundtrack disc that came with the game and trying to think through what I thought was happening with the songs. I specifically remember having to do chores outside and sweeping the garage with a CD player in the corner, blaring the soundtrack. And then I felt embarrassed when my sisters came out and raised an eyebrow at me, hahaha...
For ages I saw locales in this game everywhere I went. I remember going to some lake in the midwest and thinking that it looked like it could be the village of song, and I kept daydreaming that the Blue Dragon Shrine was rising up out of the lake.
Alright, enough chatter from me. Both of my kids are sick and I'm back to work tomorrow. I have to be up in about 5 hours. It will probably be a solid 20 hours or so until I can play the game again. I plan on at least getting to meet Ronfar, and maybe even getting all the way to caravan. I don't remember exactly how far that is, but I know it's pretty close after the events at the Blue Spire.
Catch ya later, homie!
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Then I have this to look forward to because I remember none of it. :D
Ruby gets jabs in on everybody so you have a lot to look forward to.
Later, when Alex rescues Luna, he has to pass through some sort of barrier and give up the powers of the Dragonmaster. Luna regains her senses and it's implied that the power of the Dragon artifacts are gone, having disappeared when Alex passed through the barrier. At least that's what I think I remember, haha...
That is precisely what happened. I believe Luna was already sane at that point and she was just in her goddess-like state-trance. She was talking to Alex like normally. I think it was Alex who ultimately made the decision to give up his powers as Dragonmaster to save Luna from being a goddess for a few hundred years/having to be reborn, cause he wanted to spend his life with her forever in Burg. After that cutscene, it's pretty much implied that the goddess is no more, as well as the dragons and her magic.
I actually ended up buying Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete on a whim
I remember I was like 10 years old and I kept seeing advertisements for lunAr, lunAr, lunAr... (If you notice the "A" is slightly raised in the LUNAR: The Silver Star logo.) It was around the age where I started to become enamored with anime so I loved that this RPG had anime-style character drawings. I used to cut out and save the advertisements too. I remember it was like the late-90s and for the life of me I couldn't find a copy of LUNAR: TSS in-stores or on AOL. What ended up happening was I traded a copy of Final Fantasy III for SNES for an original copy of LUNAR: The Silver Star for Sega CD. Thing was, I DIDN'T HAVE a Sega CD. I spent the next couple of years going to different game stores in California and Nevada hunting for one and I couldn't find one until I just ended up ordering it on Amazon in 2016. I spent a lot of years just listening to the game CD/which was also a soundtrack in a Discman or on my computer. Trying to find a working Sega CD console was like the story of my life for a couple of years. haha lol
It will probably be a solid 20 hours or so until I can play the game again. I plan on at least getting to meet Ronfar, and maybe even getting all the way to caravan.
I was actually afraid you were gonna get quite farther ahead than me as you mentioned you're playing with cheat codes and I'm playing just a normal, straight-forward playthrough on my PS3 with the original PS1 disc so I tried to kinda play ahead a little bit. I guess I'll just take my time. Just to warn ya, I kinda have the habit of doing a lot of "nothing" in RPGs: "like walking around aimlessly, clicking on everything, talking to every NPC over-and-over until they repeat their line, reading the back of signposts..." so if it seems like I'm dilly-dallying - I am, sometimes I just like having a game I like on and getting lost in my own thoughts.
I'm probably gonna have a good session tonight, but I'll keep in mind that you won't be able to play awhile so I'll try not to get too far ahead of ya. Keep up the good work, holmes!
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I was actually afraid you were gonna get quite farther ahead than me as you mentioned you're playing with cheat codes and I'm playing just a normal, straight-forward playthrough on my PS3 with the original PS1 disc so I tried to kinda play ahead a little bit. I guess I'll just take my time. Just to warn ya, I kinda have the habit of doing a lot of "nothing" in RPGs: "like walking around aimlessly, clicking on everything, talking to every NPC over-and-over until they repeat their line, reading the back of signposts..." so if it seems like I'm dilly-dallying - I am, sometimes I just like having a game I like on and getting lost in my own thoughts.
This is a relief for me. I was afraid I was playing too slowly! I'm actually okay going at a slow pace, just by nature of how insane my life is right now, haha...
So far I'm not using any cheats, but I do have them on hand if I need them. Mainly for exploits to get more Silver.
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Alright I'll keep in mind to go slow. I'll probably take my sweet-time and grind in spots and stuff. Tbh, I'll probably just make it to Larpa and wait for you there.
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#3 session
So this's a combination of what I managed to get done late last night and today. I was super busy all day running around but I managed to get some playtime in. :)
So my thoughts after the Althena's Statue in the Blue Spire Garden: I always forget that Hiro is pretty much just a young, horny teenager(?) that's lusting after Lucia in the worst way like a total pervert skeeve throughout the whole game. Compared to Alex who was much more standoffish in a way.
I love Zophar's voice. I know it's autotuned or whatever in some way but I really like him/it a lot. I might like him more than the baddie in the first game - voiceover-wise. I think he sounds so maniacally evil.
I was like level 14 when fighting the Guardian so s/he/it didn't give me a problem at all.
This's the beginning of Hiro and co. always giving Leo the slip!
So Lucia getting cursed by Zophar is the main plotpoint or reason why Hiro is instructed to leave the desert and look for a specific priest named Ronfar in Larpa? (I'm paying a lot more attention this time rather than just enjoying the game and letting it overtake me.)
Ruby may seem like a smart-ass but her affection for Hiro really is her weakpoint. I think it's funny she thinks of herself as his girlfriend or something!?
I'm stopped at the boat dock near Larpa. I really couldn't play that much today and get a really good, deep session in but I kept in mind we're going slow due to our life being so hectic haha. I'll see you soon, homie!
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First off, I just noticed that the title on this thread had "Eterenal" -- whoops! Fixed! Now on with the show!
Blue Spire (cont'd)
I leveled up a bit, got to 13 before the Guardian. I generally do minimal grinding, but try to fight every enemy in a dungeon. I feel like this is a game you have to grind a bit to stay ahead of the difficulty curve, so it's very possible I'll use an EXP cheat before long. :D
Also, I love little scenery like this:
(https://i.imgur.com/mlh2kPp.png)
There were quite a few that I loved in the first LUNAR; the grave of Dragonmaster Dyne comes to mind. So serene.
Random Thoughts:
Poor grandpa Gwyn - alas, he's only a temporary character! I like his character and non-traditional jRPG trope archetypes, and old man explorers are definitely unique. Grandia III was unique in that the lead protagonist's mom joined the party, about half of the Chrono Cross roster was strange characters, etc.
... I always forget that Hiro is pretty much just a young, horny teenager(?) that's lusting after Lucia in the worst way like a total pervert skeeve throughout the whole game. Compared to Alex who was much more standoffish in a way.
Alex was just so freaking good-natured. He was raised with Luna, and their relationship, despite eventually being one of romantic love, was certainty steeped in having growing up together in an almost sibling-like fashion. Alex also grew up with a mom and dad (a rarity in jRPGs) and a pretty solid community in Burg, so I'd wager he had a very stable childhood.
Hiro, on the other hand... I can't recall much backstory for him, but he was raised by who may or may not be his grandfather / blood relative (but no parents), in the desert, and in constant search of history (and treasure) in pursuit of archaeology -- what I would expect would be a pretty adrenaline-fueled upbringing. Without over-analyzing, he is probably a bit less tempered emotionally and his approach to sexuality and romanticism (and Lucia) would be very different from how Alex saw Luna.
tldr; Definitely like you called it with Hiro being "a young, horny teenager." Hahaha!
I love Zophar's voice. I know it's autotuned or whatever in some way but I really like him/it a lot. I might like him more than the baddie in the first game - voiceover-wise. I think he sounds so maniacally evil.
Agreed. I think he has some of the best VA in the game so far. Reminds me a little of the villain of the film Legend. But I find Lucia's VA far less impressive, especially considering the importance of her role.
I also did a little bit of cheat exploring with the game... For example, Gwyn has abysmal stat growth even at level 99. His max HP ends up being like 70. And even if you are level 99 in the battle against the four Guardians, they still automatically beat you after several rounds. You can wail on them all you want and they either have insanely high or infinite HP.
Outside the Blue Spire
Leo somersaulted off the Dragonship Destiny. He's such a dolt and I apparently stan him. :D
Ruby may seem like a smart-ass but her affection for Hiro really is her weakpoint. I think it's funny she thinks of herself as his girlfriend or something!?
You know, she may (eventually) be able to assume a human form like Nall does. I wonder what that would mean for Ruby...? And if there's a possibility for half-dragon humans out there! Since Nall can transform at will between his young form, full dragon form, and human form, the nature of the dragons tends to transcend just the body. Food for thought and imaginary sequel fodder.
Larpa
I've arrived in Larpa and am gonna stop here. I may play later tonight (my time) if I'm able.
Before I go, though -- I'm trying to piece together the world map and compare between SSSC and EBC. This is obviously in a desert region in the SE corner of the known LUNAR world. I'm trying to remember what was down here in the original SSSC. All I can find online of SSSC world maps is the cloth map, which looks like a pretty good fit, but doesn't tell me much. I can see the cloth map has a village down in that area, but it isn't named. Is it Lann, maybe?
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First off, I just noticed that the title on this thread had "Eterenal" -- whoops! Fixed! Now on with the show!
I actually did notice the typo in the title of the thread a few times but didn't say anything cause I thought that might make me look extremely OCD & anal-retentive. :p If I was truly being nitpicky I'd say it should read "LUNAR 2: Eternal Blue Complete" being that 'lunar' should be capitalized because it's referring to the video game. But, no worries! :p
but try to fight every enemy in a dungeon.
I try to do that too. Not because I'm trying to be extreme but I feel it keeps me up to level with the game's difficulty at that point. Plus the battles in this game are just fun!
Re: image in the Blue Spire.
Yeah that's my favorite scene in the Blue Spire too! Sometimes I pause and just take a look around and enjoy myself. To try not to take life too seriously!
Poor grandpa Gwyn - alas, he's only a temporary character! I like his character and non-traditional jRPG trope archetypes, and old man explorers are definitely unique. Grandia III was unique in that the lead protagonist's mom joined the party, about half of the Chrono Cross roster was strange characters, etc.
Yeah one of my criteria for an RPG I'd want to invest time in is, is good characters. Some games I flat-out hate on for having bad character designs like Final Fantasy 6's Cyan, and The Legend of Dragoon's Haschel. I guess ponytailed samurai dudes aren't my thing! :p Always hated those two characters as a kid. -- Yup! I loved Grandia III when the mom joined and I do enjoy how you put that that CC's characters were strange. I like unique characters a lot too! Especially if they come with unique, unconventional weapons. This makes me think of Nina the old grandmother that joins in battle in SaGa Frontier II.
But I find Lucia's VA far less impressive, especially considering the importance of her role.
Yeah Lucia sounds even mouse-ier than Luna. Tbh, Lucia's voice kinda evolves as the game goes on. She's goes through such a transformation that you can tell in her speaking lines that she's going through some growth. Lucia is like my 2nd-favorite character cause I find her kinda dumb sometimes, lol - and I think the whole "Huh? What is a rock? What is water running through a stream?" thing so hilarious!! Her actual voice though I think they were going with icy, cold ice princess type of flatness or see-thoroughness.
I also did a little bit of cheat exploring with the game... For example, Gwyn has abysmal stat growth even at level 99. His max HP ends up being like 70. And even if you are level 99 in the battle against the four Guardians, they still automatically beat you after several rounds. You can wail on them all you want and they either have insanely high or infinite HP.
Lol, that's good to know. I usually just stop leveling at around 13 in the Blue Spire cause Gwyn doesn't get anymore skills and he leaves soon so that's like the game telling you that you can move on... Usually when I fight the four Guardians I just hurry up and try to get myself killed quickly but this time Gwyn was left standing and the screen blipped off signaling that the battle was over, -- usually I get killed pretty right away.
Leo somersaulted off the Dragonship Destiny. He's such a dolt and I apparently stan him. :D
Lol the quintessential loser dismount! :p
You know, she may (eventually) be able to assume a human form like Nall does. I wonder what that would mean for Ruby...? And if there's a possibility for half-dragon humans out there! Since Nall can transform at will between his young form, full dragon form, and human form, the nature of the dragons tends to transcend just the body. Food for thought and imaginary sequel fodder.
I could spoil you right now about whether-or-not Ruby ever gets a human form but I don't see a spoiler tag I dunno if you'd wanna know or not.
Re: the map.
I've never really taken a look at the two maps side-by-side before, but I think since it's 1,000 years after the events of the first game a lot of geography has been changed around. I might have to take a look at my SSSC cloth map later on to give you a proper answer.
I'll try to cont. on into Larpa. I'll take my time. Finally! A town! It's really just gonna be a lot of talking to NPCs and story moments so it shouldn't be that difficult.
Edit:
Note: do not bother climbing back up the Blue Spire to talk to Leo and the Guard, they're not there.
Note(2): when Lucia's sick on the couch, go downstairs into the basement to talk to Gwyn for an extra line, and Ruby will have an extra line if you check the lookout upstairs.
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I could spoil you right now about whether-or-not Ruby ever gets a human form but I don't see a spoiler tag I dunno if you'd wanna know or not.
I've played the game before (only the PSX Complete version), but it's been probably ten to fifteen years. I remember it was right after I got married, so maybe 2008 or 2009? I actually don't remember Ruby ever being human, but I do remember her turning into full-on adult red dragon.
Note(2): when Lucia's sick on the couch, go downstairs into the basement to talk to Gwyn for an extra line, and Ruby will have an extra line if you check the lookout upstairs.
Haha, I did just this!
I've never really taken a look at the two maps side-by-side before, but I think since it's 1,000 years after the events of the first game a lot of geography has been changed around. I might have to take a look at my SSSC cloth map later on to give you a proper answer.
Yeah, it's 1,000 years. The geography is definitely a little different but you can tell that they are roughly the same landmasses. There's definitely continuity there.
Here's a hires map scan of the cloth map: http://psxdatacenter.com/images/hires/U/L/SLUS-00628/SLUS-00628-M-ALL.html
I'm surprised no one has bothered to make an export of the SSSC world map, but that may be because the worldmap doesn't seem to be a continuous thing. I think in SSSC they were just several smaller maps just stitched together, which may explain why such a thing doesn't seemingly exist (or at least not that I could find with Google-fu).
I just can't remember what was down in the lower right corner of the map in SSSC, but I swear you go there in the story.
I'll try to cont. on into Larpa. I'll take my time. Finally! A town! It's really just gonna be a lot of talking to NPCs and story moments so it shouldn't be that difficult.
Sorry this is such a slow and arduous play-through. Unfortunately, this is just how gaming is for me. It took me 4 months to beat Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and another 2 months to 100% it. (side note: I'm a bit of a completionist, so I try to 100% every game I play, if I can).
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Larpa
I explored town. Despite the mayor and some of the townsfolk being immoral criminals, it seems like there are some decent folk who legitimately want to make the town a better place. I especially feel bad for the lady and her daughter in the Mayor's house (who I assume is the mayor's wife?).
After visiting the Sancuary, I also feel bad at seeing the shape of Althena's religion. It's turned into a greedy, bastardized religion that takes advantage of people.
Also, lol at the guy at the bar with a birthmark on his butt in the shape of the Blue Star. :D
I met Ronfar, who is surprisingly old friends with Leo, from his days with Althena's Chosen. Poor Mauri - sounds like he broke her heart after he tried to save her and was only partially successful. I don't remember his background much, so I'm eager to get the full story. I also like his play against character archetype - a handsome, gambling priest-turned-swinder-with-a-heart-of-gold, and the party's main healer.
I am about to take Lucia to the Sanctuary, but I must take a break.
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I've played the game before (only the PSX Complete version), but it's been probably ten to fifteen years. I remember it was right after I got married, so maybe 2008 or 2009? I actually don't remember Ruby ever being human, but I do remember her turning into full-on adult red dragon.
Well if you don't mind, I was gonna say that they never really show Ruby as a human girl, like how Nall gets a human form, in the game but there's a lot of fanart for it floating around the interwebs!
Here's a hires map scan of the cloth map:
Oh wow, that makes it seem like the SSSC world is so small. ^_^; Well I don't recall either off the top of my head what's in the lower-right corner of the map in SSSC but I'd probably guess something like Myght's Tower or perhaps Pao? Since you go to it late in the game...
Sorry this is such a slow and arduous play-through. Unfortunately, this is just how gaming is for me. It took me 4 months to beat Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and another 2 months to 100% it. (side note: I'm a bit of a completionist, so I try to 100% every game I play, if I can).
Oh no, don't worry! I don't have too many responsibilities I have to do right now everyday, but sometimes I have a hard time finding time to get gaming time in so I think our pace is really nice. I actually try to exercise everyday (even if it's just walking, or doing something lame like a stationary bike) and I get tired some nights, LOL! It's also really hot here in the Philippines and after 5 years I'm still not used to it as an American and it just ZAPS me of energy some afternoons. I try to play at night when it's cooler.
I'm a bit of a perfectionist. So I like to explore every single area for stuff you can click on, or seeing if there's extra bits of dialogue if you talk to this person x first... Or even just grinding a little bit. Don't worry mate! Even if it takes us all year I'll hang on with you! :) I'd hate to leave things unfinished.
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#4 session
So sometimes I like to go ahead of the flag just to check how the game stops you from progressing further. I skipped Larpa and went through the western desert and entered Dalton. It's like a port-town and the big story here is the Chosen have broke the Althena's Statue at the entrance to town so all the townsfolk are forced to use the one in the Sanctuary.
Like what you said about how Althena's religion has drastically changed since the first game. There's definitely something amiss with the Chosen. One of the little girls even saw the person who broke the statue and he was wearing a robe like one of the Chosen does! Anyway the town is pretty small so I left.
I went up north towards the woods and Ruby has a line telling you to go back, but you can keep going on so I did... but the monsters are pretty powerful for just only Hiro alone and I simply don't have the funds right now to buy all the new weapons + armor at Dalton, so I just headed back to Larpa for the flag.
Larpa
I talked to everyone. The funniest NPC to me is the little girl in the Mayor's house. For some reason she just makes me laugh!!! :) Now these are my kinda people haha. A town with no police force? Awesome! Anyway I just made the rounds and I stopped in front of Ronfar where I saved and stopping for now.
I might play some more later when/if the heat here dies down. But all in all, that was a pretty good sesh for me just talking to townspeople and NPCs and no fighting. Cool!! :)
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I've had some PC troubles today, so it took some time to get going today. For some reason I've lost the ability to use the d-pad on the mapped controller I'm using, but I can't figure it out, so I pressed on.
Larpa
For some reason, I always think that when Althena becomes human, Althena is outright no more. And I was thinking this at the beginning of this playthrough, as well, as Lucia can't feel Althena's presence when she wakes up at the Blue Spire. Even one or two of the NPCs in Larpa talk about feeling like Althena isn't there...
...but in the Sanctuary Ronfar is able to pray to Althena's statue and at least partially lift Zophar's curse. Unless the power is entirely within Ronfar and the statue is channeling it, who is granting that power if not Althena...?
There's so much I can't remember about this game, which is why I'm glad we're playing it!
I lol'd when they all went to sleep and Ronfar just laid down on the floor, following by Hiro and Ruby.
It then took me about 10 minutes to find Lucia by talking to the mother with the baby. It was literally the last house I looked in. Doh!
Re-entering the mayor's place, I realize his wife (the little girl's mother) is mean, haha... She called her child ugly and stupid.
Finally reunited with Lucia, just to lose her.
Desert Shenanigans
I spent some time leveling here. It's nice to finally get some decent silver.
Dalton
Explored the town and talked to the bartender to hear all his dialogue; interesting to hear that Dalton used to be a small village until recent years, and back then it had more of a community feel with people drinking and fighting and coming together.
I also caught the lore around who the current Four Heroes are. I completely forgot that Mauri was affiliated with the red dragon.
Last, it's nice to see that Ruby loves fish as much as Nall did. :D
I saved right before confronting Leo to save Lucia. Now it's bed time here!
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#5 session
It's about 2-hours until the new year, for me here. I thought I'd get a good session in for tonight for our project.
I ignored the talking to Ronfar flag in Larpa and decided to see how far I can get before the game stops me from progressing. The woodsman in the Illusion Woods won't open the entrance because it's for "skilled, experienced travelers" so I have no choice but to go back and talk to Ronfar.
If you buy the weapon + armor upgrades for Hiro in Dalton, you can easily make it through the woods to reach the woodsman. Unfortunately he won't let you through. At this point I'll probably force myself to talk to Ronfar in the bar-tavern as there's literally nothing else I can do. Note: If you run from a battle you might get lucky with one of Lucia's spoken lines.
I kinda just wanted to mindlessly fight a few battles and relax but I guess I have to read some more text.
I'll probably be playing a fair bit tonight since I'm waiting for the neighbors to stop firing off firecrackers + poppers. My 2 dogs are scared to death, in my room right now. lol
Edit:
#5.5 session
I have to apologize. I was so busy yesterday running around the house doing some end-of-the-year last-minute Spring Cleaning and was partially exhausted plus with the New Year's Eve festivities going-on in the neighborhood it was hard for me to really get some time in alone with both my dogs refusing to leave my room cause of the fireworks/poppers + noise outside all night long. lol
I actually did get some decent sessions in but I wish I had more time to put more effort into my write-ups in on here.
So I cont. and finally talked to Ronfar. Ronfar's always been one of my favorite characters in all of RPG lore, - I think you touched on it in a previous post but he's pretty much a male healer and you don't get too many of those. Usually you rely on the Ninas and Jessicas to be the nurse in battles. Anyway it's nice to see a different change of pace, with just things.
Leo is very persistent. Almost to the point of being annoying. It annoyed me that I forgot what "LM" stood for; I knew it was Leo but I have no idea off the top of my head what his last name is. At least we know it starts with an "M." LUNAR really does have a lot of world and game-lore attached to it and a lot of backstory so it might get confusing when they reference so much stuff from the previous game especially.
I feel so bad dragging Lucia's cursed self all around the island. Lol
Anyway I have a little less cleaning to do today but I'll probably be able to play some more. I know I can reach Dalton (Don't worry it might seem like I'm doing a lot of extra things but I'm right behind you!), but I'll probably try to do a little more after, just cause I have the extra time, and maybe I can reach the Illusion Woods/Carnival and meet Jean.
I hope you're doing well man, and Happy New Year's! :D
#5.501 session
I lol'd when they all went to sleep and Ronfar just laid down on the floor, following by Hiro and Ruby.
Yeah, that was funny. Sometimes I take a close look at the little nuances in Japanese RPGs that make it a Japanese RPG, like sleeping on the floor. I remember in Star Ocean: The Second Story I noticed that a lot of the tables in the hotels you stay in are very clearly for sitting down on the floor as they are very low to the ground and there are floor cushions. I mean, some things the American-side of things just can't or don't bother taking out, do they?
A personal story: Back in Freshman year of High School when LUNAR 2 came out for me, we got our first dog a German-Shepherd, and I named her Mauri. :p
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#5.502 session
Sorry for my unorganized posts. I try to just type everything out. So I'm on my way to Dalton don't worry. A few notes:
Larpa
- Am I the only one that finds the citizens talking way too fast and the adults sound so awkward, and creepy? For example, the old lady at the entrance to town has the most awkward, creepy line. I don't mind the children though. Sometimes I go into full-on analytical mode and question/analyze the translators that wrote the script to the game's dialogue and their choices. Maybe it's always (just) been Working Designs's style and I never noticed til now.
- If you go to the Mayor's House first you'll find Lucia but one of the maids is blocking the stairs. I think you're supposed to go here first and see this anyways.
- Did you get the bromide from the artist-dad in the farthest-rightmost house? There's only a couple you can get in the main game but they're pretty easy to find if you talk to everyone and explore everything. Unfortunately you can't equip them like you can in SSSC.
- The mom in the mayor's household is pretty funny. I like her honesty.
- The baby thinking Ruby's a cat is pretty funny.
- This's the beginning of the Lucia dumbness that I find so funny about her. "What is a rock? What is the water flowing through a stream? Does it have lifes?" LMAO.
- The women in this game are pretty annoying. Especially the Chosen. They always have annoying lines. I wonder if they were always like this in the first game SSSC? (I can never say anything bad about that game though.)
Larpa's my kinda town. I love how it's just adults who love to drink recreationally at the pub after-work and they mention how annoying the police is. (My personal experience in America speaks a lot to this.) I kinda just want to live in this town, and never leave. (I lived in San Francisco.)
I think Lucia's decision to independently look for Althena is very strange after we helped her so much. I just found that, her leaving, kinda strange.
- So Althena's missing. But some of the Chosen say she's alive and well somewhere in our midst. I thought it was interesting the scene where Ronfar lifted the curse on Lucia first--the Althena's Statue "worked"; but wasn't powerful enough.
I think that was all Ronfar and his past experience as a priest you can tell it came from within him.
Lucia just left. And I'm on my way to Dalton. (Right behind you!) I'll probably stop here for tonight. It's like 8pm right now and I plan to stay up for 4 more hours so I could squeeze another session in if I find myself with enough time. But I feel I've already played for long enough today. Cheers, mate! :D
Note: I need to get an avatar. Sorry.
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I have to apologize. ...
Sorry for my unorganized posts.
No apologies! You never need to apologize. For either disorganization or for either going behind or jumping ahead! This pace is working well for me. In fact, I go back into the office this week, so I'm going to have a few days when I know I'm just not going to have time to game. The in-office days in the city end up being like 14-hour work days (when you include drive-time).
I also didn't get to play at all since I arrived in Dalton, which was Friday night my time. It's now Sunday afternoon. I plan on getting some time in tonight.
Am I the only one that finds the citizens talking way too fast and the adults sound so awkward, and creepy? ... Maybe it's always (just) been Working Designs's style and I never noticed til now.
I definitely think jRPGs of the 1990s were pretty light on dialogue, which was tight and lacked much nuance. It was all pretty literal. I definitely think they were all a little like this, but Working Designs is pretty bad for having sort of punchy dialogue that always feels like a wink and a nudge. Whether it be creepiness, overly direct, or just (dated) pop culture shenanigans.
Did you get the bromide from the artist-dad in the farthest-rightmost house? There's only a couple you can get in the main game but they're pretty easy to find if you talk to everyone and explore everything.
...No. I can't believe I missed it. I even caught some of his dialogue earlier in which he talks about painting Lucia. I wonder if I permanently missed it or can go back for it? I may just need to play with a walkthrough, as it really bugs me when I miss things like this (I'm definitely a completionist).
EDIT: I got so frustrated about I just fired up the game for 15 minutes just to see if I could pick it up. Luckily, I could. :)
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No apologies! You never need to apologize.
(was about to apologize again) Ok, I have no idea why I'm so apologetic in nature, maybe it's because I'm Asian. LOL It's just that I really like messageboards and since I'm new here, I wanted to contribute something really good to your board, is all. :)
This pace is working well for me. In fact, I go back into the office this week, so I'm going to have a few days when I know I'm just not going to have time to game. The in-office days in the city end up being like 14-hour work days (when you include drive-time).
Ok. I'll probably use that time to grind or something. Or just muck around.
I definitely think jRPGs of the 1990s were pretty light on dialogue
I've found some RPG games to be quite stoic or stilted, like Breath of Fire,--It's almost like they compressed the text down cause it didn't fit in the memory so they only spoke when they needed to. *shrug*
Working Designs is pretty bad
I remember I enjoyed the Working Designs RPGs as a kid/teen cause there was so much text and I enjoyed reading. Now that I've grown up some, it's fun to go back and look at what I was really doing at that age. LOL I think it's nice I even actually have a thought on this now than the game just overtaking me and being all blitzed-out throughout the experience.
To be honest, whenever I think of Working Designs's localization/or translation, I think a lot about how California it sounds. Like if you can pick which regional dialect of America it most sounds like California would probably be it. There's a lot of surfer lingo, and Valley Girl-speach. I think a lot of California-isms is pretty popular, and has spread throughout the states a bit too. Like I've heard people from the Midwest use "hella" and that's distinctly a Northern California/Bay Area slang word. *shrug*
When I mention "creepy" I mean like when you get into the suburbs and everyone kinda talks all the same type of deal.
(I'm definitely a completionist).
Don't worry I'm a bit of a completionist too as well, so I'll let you know if there's an important item or something that's missable. I got'yo back, homie! :D
EDIT: I got so frustrated about I just fired up the game for 15 minutes just to see if I could pick it up. Luckily, I could. :)
Lol, good.
Edit:
#6 session
I'm gonna miss Larpa.
So I finally made it to Dalton and just in time too to save Lucia. I think it's interesting that Lucia states that her and Althena's "purpose" is one in the same - and what could that be to defeat Zophar? Leo awknowledges that Lucia is saying that she and Althena are somewhat on the same level or pedestal. Lucia is definitely in the same tier as the Goddess Althena, in my opinion.
I didn't get too much gaming in today just to catch up with you I'm still in the midst of cleaning my farmhouse here. Also,--I'm really excited tonight because tomorrow I'm planning to take a trip to the mall (abt. 45 minutes away) to buy a PS4 Pro. I'm sooooo behind the times, man. Anyway, can't wait to hear from ya! :D
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#7 session
Notes:
-Do you know who my favorite NPC is? The guy-dude with the blue hair and yellow shirt? I really like his lines a lot. For some reason he always seems a bit "different" or stands out from the rest of the other NPC characters a lot. I'm 100% certain they use the same char sprite in SSSC as I recognize it so much. All of his lines there, were funny as well.
-A lot of the characters' lines in Dalton have changed, I'm 100% sure. If you bypass speaking to Ronfar and just go straight to Dalton everyone has different lines for the most part (so are you actually supposed to do that)? The Dragonship Destiny is now parked there and that changed everyone's focus to that now.
-I'm surprised Althena's Guards can drink?
-I love, love, love the Chosen sub-plot where everyone talks about how Althena's church is doing shady things like asking for a lot of donations? Why do they need so much of the money for?
-Dalton is a really nice town, compared to Larpa. Why do all the women always seem to be fawning on the men so much? I wish it were like that around me in real-life? :D
-Sometimes I don't really understand the kids all that much. O_o;
So I'm in the hangar right before you board the Destiny and save Lucia. I'll wait for you, bro. I can def move further ahead but I like when we're right caught up w/ each other. :) I'm prob gonna play a little bit each day though.
Personal story: I went to the mall today and the three stores I went to said they don't carry the PS4 Pro anymore. Bumsville. I suspected as such cause I checked the PS4 launch date and it turns 10 this year so they likely took it off the shelfs. My Dad's friend in Manila said he found it there though so I have to see what the deal is. Last resort is getting a used one online but I'd rather get a brand new one still in the box. It costs more but whatever.
Oh well.
To be honest, I'm more invested in this LUNAR project I have going on with you, man. Take care and cheers!
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Sorry I haven't been able to play any the past two days. I've got the flu (started Sunday night) and haven't been well enough to do anything but lay in bed. I'm a little improved today and have some critical work meetings I have to attend virtually (I have to help onboard a new operations team here at work), so I'm going to have time to dive in and play.
I went to the mall today and the three stores I went to said they don't carry the PS4 Pro anymore. Bumsville. I suspected as such cause I checked the PS4 launch date and it turns 10 this year so they likely took it off the shelfs.
Daaaaang, the PS4 is 10 years old?!?! I've not owned a console since the PS3 and Xbox360... although I do have a Nintendo Switch. I love the Nintendo and the portability, but it's super frustrating at the price model. First-party exclusive games are excellent (such as Xenoblade Chronicles, Mario, etc), but those that are available on the PC are almost certainly more expensive on the Switch than any other console. Truth be told, I'm tempted to get a Steam Deck, both for emulation and PC gaming.
Are PS4 cheaper in the Philippines than in the US? Are they region-locked? Worst case scenario is that I could try to track one down here and ship it to you. Seriously, I would!
So I'm in the hangar right before you board the Destiny and save Lucia. I'll wait for you, bro. I can def move further ahead but I like when we're right caught up w/ each other. :) I'm prob gonna play a little bit each day though.
I plan on playing daily - or as close to daily as I can - so don't be afraid to go a little past me. I'm apt to catch up.
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Back on it.
Dalton:
Talking to a guy in the pier, Ronfar ends up saying "that bastich of a boat." I thought he meant to say 'bitch' but looked it up, and it's a word meaning "An obnoxious or contemptible person." I learned a new word today! Haha
I found it interesting you can find another Dagger in the upper room of the pier.
Dragonship Destiny
You can also chat with the soldiers on the ship after you defeat them. Some of them are hilarious:
"I think...I popped...a 'roid..."
"This is even worse...than the time I...unleashed an air biscuit...right in front of...Lord...Leo..." <-This is a phrase I haven't heard in years!
"Perhaps...I should have explained....the definition of..."surrender" to you..."
I also got an Iron Shield as a drop from one of these guys. Nice!
I like that even after capturing Lucia, Leo (and his men) feel compassion and aren't quite confident in their decision to capture and execute her.
Starlight Woods and the Star Dragon Tower
After rescuing Lucia, I came here to scout out. Got some character building that was fun. Ruby being Ruby and jealous of Lucia... Hiro opening up to Lucia about his thirst for adventure (and that he learned very young that life is short and precious, which I am guessing ties back to his parents).
Illusion Woods
You think these guys would be sick of playing dice with Ronfar, but they never learn. At least be smart enough to use your own dice, geeeeez!
I obtained the Snake Crest... I completely forgot about this element of the game! Items that, when equipped, grant certain magics. Ronfar got this one.
Finally, at the heart of the forest... the caravan. :)
I'm saving and stopping here for the day.
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Sorry I haven't been able to play any the past two days. I've got the flu (started Sunday night) and haven't been well enough to do anything but lay in bed.
Oh it's quite alright usually I just muck around and grind a little bit. I love the thoughts I'm having while I'm relaxing to one of my favorite games! It almost feels like therapy or some sort of rehabilitation! Oh! I'm so sorry you have the flu! That sucks. I've actually never gotten the flu in my life but a few colds here and there. If I were your neighbor I'd bring over some chicken soup. A lot of my older friends suggest instant ramen and seriously down and drink the broth it's good for you. I would just pound H20 and liquids. I hope you feel better, man!
Daaaaang, the PS4 is 10 years old?!?! I've not owned a console since the PS3 and Xbox360... although I do have a Nintendo Switch. I love the Nintendo and the portability, but it's super frustrating at the price model. First-party exclusive games are excellent (such as Xenoblade Chronicles, Mario, etc), but those that are available on the PC are almost certainly more expensive on the Switch than any other console. Truth be told, I'm tempted to get a Steam Deck, both for emulation and PC gaming.
I'm quite behind the times, a bit of a renaissance man if you will. (lol) Na, I've just been stuck playing on older consoles because I've been working on my backlog of RPGs (mostly SNES & PS1), that I never beat as a kid. I actually accomplished that goal this past year so that's why I'm moving on to the PS4. Hey, Boo--I've been wanting to ask but do you have a Backloggery? (Here's mine: https://www.backloggery.com/VidKid369 (https://www.backloggery.com/VidKid369)) It's a site where you can track your games/see what you friends are playing. :D I'd love to see your games!
My cousin was supposed to come visit me here on Christmas, but he got his divorce papers served to him in December so he postponed the trip he was supposed to bring me a Nintendo Switch OLED too. Shucks! He'll probably send it to me sometime later though, I suppose!
Yeah I've heard about the Steam Deck but I've never used Steam once in my life, and I'm not much of a PC gamer I just use the computer/laptop to post on messageboards and maybe listen to music on YouTube and that's it. I'm zeroing-in on the PS4 Pro because I've had so much fun on the PlayStation in terms of RPGs and I really, really loved the PS3 it's been there with me through the toughest of times I've had in my life. It really is the best. I use it for a lot of DVD use too (I love Survivor!) I just got a 4K television and I've read that the Pro can output 4K so I'd love to see how it looks like in true 4K ultra-HD.
I've never touched an Xbox in my life. I figured if I can ignore one console I can concentrate on the other ones better Sony / Nintendo. But I've been hearing about how the latest Xbox can backwards-compat it's entire system library and that's really piquing my interest since I wouldn't have to go back and get all the system's older consoles. We'll see about the Xbox though.
Are PS4 cheaper in the Philippines than in the US? Are they region-locked? Worst case scenario is that I could try to track one down here and ship it to you. Seriously, I would!
I think a new, still-in-box PS4 Pro is around ₱20-25,000. I can get a used one online for about ₱15,000. Which's about $446.00 / and $267.00, respectively. The exchange rate is bad right now.
Like the PS3, the PS4 is not region locked so you can play any game no matter where your console came from. It's quite nice because I get some Asian-English games here and I wonder if I can play them. The PSN is region-locked though, so if you're playing a US game with online content you have to be playing on a US PSN account. While the games aren't region locked, DVDs and Blu-rays are though.
Oh! You don't have to do that! ^_^; A few other people I know have offered to do the same and it's quite alright, I can probably find one here. I would just feel bad cause I hate owing people things lol.
I plan on playing daily - or as close to daily as I can - so don't be afraid to go a little past me. I'm apt to catch up.
Ok. I can already feel myself having a chilled out, relaxing day so I'll probably fire up LUNAR 2 soon. I won't rush through things and I'll definitely fight and explore. It's been nice hearing from you man, hope you can shake off this flu and get better! :)
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Talking to a guy in the pier, Ronfar ends up saying "that bastich of a boat." I thought he meant to say 'bitch' but looked it up, and it's a word meaning "An obnoxious or contemptible person." I learned a new word today! Haha
I thought he was saying a word that was a cross between "bastage" and "bistch."
I also got an Iron Shield as a drop from one of these guys. Nice!
Awe. I didn't get an Iron Shield. You hit the jackpot! I always thought this part was really annoying as a kid.
I like that even after capturing Lucia, Leo (and his men) feel compassion and aren't quite confident in their decision to capture and execute her.
I think one of the NPC's in Dalton described her as looking "relatively harmless." I don't know about you but if I saw a woman in a full-on regalia robe like Lucia I'd be freaked out!
I obtained the Snake Crest... I completely forgot about this element of the game! Items that, when equipped, grant certain magics. Ronfar got this one.
Yeah, the crests are one of the main things that stick-out to me as a main difference between SSSC and EBC. Both games have that classic, traditional JRPG-feel... with basic equips and accessories et cetera but here in EBC the crests are almost extra accessories your can equip to enhance stats and add magic attacks.
#8 session
I'm gonna miss Dalton. It reminds me of San Francisco because it's a port city with a pier and it's right next to the water. The citizens also seem fairly normal. Nothing really stuck out to me that much other than the Chosen sub-plot being ramped up as in Althena's church going to towns, setting up shop and the area almost begins to change. They definitely have power over the people. Talking to the priests is hella funny to me as in like getting in their heads and what they're thinking about.
Notes:
-One of the MAIN things I noticed in this session is I like how the writers put people's thoughts in parentheses. An example, Leo when he was just thinking to himself in the jailcell after rescuing Lucia. A lot of older RPGs just tend to write the line out and it confused me as a kid when the character was alone if they were speaking to themself? I think Final Fantasy 6 does this a lot. There are times when characters say a person's name out loud to themself alone in a scene and I just found that to be creepy. They could have just been thinking it, I dunno, you can't tell. Working Designs really knows their stuff when it comes to conversational text.
I stopped in the Starlight Forest. I was gonna go on but there's a big boss battle coming up and I was thinking if I should get some grinding in now?
Anyway, nice sesh, I'll see you tomorrow or next time! :D
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the Chosen sub-plot being ramped up as in Althena's church going to towns, setting up shop and the area almost begins to change. They definitely have power over the people. Talking to the priests is hella funny to me as in like getting in their heads and what they're thinking about.
I was raised in a segment of Christianity that was much about accumulation of wealth and control. Part of the southern Evangelical movement. In all honesty, all of the religious subtext here hits very close to home. It's a bit sad, actually.
Working Designs really knows their stuff when it comes to conversational text.
Agreed. I know we already talked about it, but it's so quippy and snarky and I like it!
I'm back in!
Caravan Meadow
I know I've already said it, but this game has great characters that are really against type. You have Ronfar the manly handsome man who is both a fallen healing priest and a gambler. Such a fun archetype. And now we get Jean the gypsy-esque caravaneer and dancer. And she uses friggin' fans for weapons!
If you read this before me, Vidkid, check out the dialogue of the lady in the upper left corner of the caravan train. She's the one in front of the blue CHUCKABOO bird (ha). When you first talk to her she is singing a lullaby. I ran through the dialogue too fast and you can't get her to repeat it, but was she singing Luna's song from SSSC? I don't think, but I swear the lyrics were familiar before they evaporated from my mind...
Moving on, another great shot of the ambience of this series:
(https://i.imgur.com/8Z5MV2f.png)
Things we learn about Jean:
- Hasn't been dancing long - only a few years
- Only dances with her clothes on (harhar, Ronfar)
- Dances to a song about a man who falls in love with a woman from the Blue Star (hmm...)
- Knows secret karate that burns within her
- Damn you, Cult of the Shadow Dragon!
Lol at the juggler recommending juggling cats only if they're declawed. :D
Althena's Spring
It's not a LUNAR game if there's not a spring with nudity barely covered by bubbles and/or hair. And seeing that Lucia is naked a lot in this game, that's not saying much! Hiro is such a dude, hahahaha!
I wonder if this is the same spring from SSSC. I think it is based on the location on the mid-major continent and near a large forest. Hmmm...
Also, don't forget to go back into the shrine after Hiro gets his face scratched up so you can grab the Iron Clogs!
During the monster attack, this lady is spot on for Working Design's dialogue (how cheeky): "I'm trying to keep a sense of humor about what I just saw... ...but there really isn't anything funny about watching my friends being dragged to their deaths!"
I'm at level 19, so I beat the boss. I feel like you level up quickly in this game, especially since you already start at, what, level 7?
Oh, and it's time for another bromide!
Takkar
I explored down (and learned about scratching ghost ladies!) and got settled in. Nothing but inns and hardware upgrades!
I saved in front of the mysterious "hooded girl." Can't wait to get some magical blood royalty on the team! Time to stop here for the night, though. A lot happened! I don't know if I'll get to play tomorrow or the next day, but I'll try.
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I’ll post about the session I just had before it disappears from my mind and I’ll go back and comment on what you said after I do chores.
#9 session
I made it through the Starlight Forest, and thru the Illusion Woods.
So, the flag is Ronfar knows the woodsman who owes him a debt and he lets you through. Interesting how they come up with that.
The Illusion Woods is kinda of a long dungeon. I kinda feel like if you fight every enemy encounter you’ll be fine in this game, but sometimes I just wanna make sure. I’m at lv. 18 right now (Ronfar 16) I think you start the game at lv 5?
Yeah I equipped the Snake Crest on Ronfar too.
At the beginning portions of the game I like to analyze Lucia’s AI. In the Illusion Woods she starts to attack enemies before she would just defend and run around on the map. I think she has two attacks at this point in the game: Napalm Shot (hits 1 enemy) and Magic Barrier which ups her own defense. I think her powers and skills-set grows as she adventures with you and starts to learn about the world, friendship and grows closer with Hiro. Most people think you can’t control her?
I stopped when first arriving at the Caravan, and I’ll talk to everyone and probably post again.
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I was raised in a segment of Christianity that was much about accumulation of wealth and control. Part of the southern Evangelical movement. In all honesty, all of the religious subtext here hits very close to home. It's a bit sad, actually.
Yeah, I was raised Roman Catholic. I actually like the religious undertones to EBC because I think, having grown up in America, religion is the thing that makes people see others as if they're... lower. I don't mind religious talks at all I have a healthy relationship with it I'm looking to raise my children, when I have them, with religion in the house. I actually think the whole "evil Demon uses corrupt Church to control the masses" thing in Japanese RPGs to be quite funny.
Agreed. I know we already talked about it, but it's so quippy and snarky and I like it!
They have stated that they take the text and re-work it so that it's more conversational and the actual way that people speak (in the US). I used to read a lot cause English is my second language and I wanted to not sound awkward.
I know I've already said it, but this game has great characters that are really against type. You have Ronfar the manly handsome man who is both a fallen healing priest and a gambler. Such a fun archetype. And now we get Jean the gypsy-esque caravaneer and dancer. And she uses friggin' fans for weapons!
Yeah I notice Ronfar is a lot like Jessica. He uses a mace and has healing litanies. Jessica hits a lot harder though when she's not healing and can get an attack in! Yeah, I quite like Jean's character design with the fans and such. She kinda reminds me of characters like Eka in Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean I don't know why? She's just kinda random and there fighting with a unique weapon. *shrug*
If you read this before me, Vidkid, check out the dialogue of the lady in the upper left corner of the caravan train. She's the one in front of the blue CHUCKABOO bird (ha). When you first talk to her she is singing a lullaby. I ran through the dialogue too fast and you can't get her to repeat it, but was she singing Luna's song from SSSC? I don't think, but I swear the lyrics were familiar before they evaporated from my mind...
She was, in fact, singing the Boat Song. Not the opening title sequence Wings.
It's not a LUNAR game if there's not a spring with nudity barely covered by bubbles and/or hair. And seeing that Lucia is naked a lot in this game, that's not saying much! Hiro is such a dude, hahahaha!
Yeah, people make a big deal outta this scene in terms of Lucia's naivite and growth but I think it's another instance to show her being dumb.
I wonder if this is the same spring from SSSC. I think it is based on the location on the mid-major continent and near a large forest. Hmmm...
I dunno, it could be. The only spring I can think of right now is the one in Burg. And the 2 boys & girls spring.
I'm at level 19, so I beat the boss. I feel like you level up quickly in this game, especially since you already start at, what, level 7?
I think I was lv. 18. I put the Iron Clogs on Jean since her fans don't need her to have high range. I always notice she's the fastest character in the game.
#9.5 session
I'm really having a great time playing this game with you! I notice I'm so relaxed and just chillin' out...
Caravan
Nothing really stuck out to me I think you covered all of it. Oh, the narcissist that's jealous of Jean is hysterical hiding in the middle caravan. Like, okay? If you bought Vanguard Bandits it came with a Demo CD of EBC before the actual release and it stops right about here. I remember re-playing that thing over-and-over. Natori, the name of the chukuboo is the name of a Japanese restaurant we used to go to in San Francisco. I thought it was interesting the chukuboo kept saying "Kukuru" who was a character in Arc the Lad Collection another of Working Designs' RPGs.
I think you pretty much covered it!
I stopped right after beating Plantella I'll probably play a little more later and catch up with you & make it to Takkar.
((I always get a 504 Bad Gateway Time-out error around 8:00pm my time, whenever I want to make a post and I have to wait around an hour usually. I'm not computer literate but what is this??))
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I'm really having a great time playing this game with you! I notice I'm so relaxed and just chillin' out...
Me too, man! I'm glad the speed is more relaxed. It's giving me something to look forward to, and playing with someone (and being able to talk about things) keeps me excited and moving onward. If we are still having fun by the end of it, I'm down to try again with another game!
((I always get a 504 Bad Gateway Time-out error around 8:00pm my time, whenever I want to make a post and I have to wait around an hour usually. I'm not computer literate but what is this??))
Weird. Ramsus is pretty much the site admin, and he's long gone but pokes in every now and then for maintenance and upkeep. Sometimes I wonder if it's not running off of a server in his house, harhar... There have been outages of the Compendium that have lasted weeks, though. If memory serves they were with 504 error messages.
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If we are still having fun by the end of it, I'm down to try again with another game!
I’m glad you don’t get put-off by how much I obsess about this game! lol This format actually works quite well for me, since we’re on a messageboard and it’s not real-time chatter we can kinda work around the time zone difference quite well. I actually had suggested that I’m up for a second round with another game, but you choose this time (if you want)! I was kinda thinking/interested about doing this with a Chrono game.
Weird. Ramsus is pretty much the site admin, and he's long gone but pokes in every now and then for maintenance and upkeep. Sometimes I wonder if it's not running off of a server in his house, harhar... There have been outages of the Compendium that have lasted weeks, though. If memory serves they were with 504 error messages.
Ok. *shrug* I’ll just deal with it.
So I had actually had a few points I wanted to make in the last post but just had a brainfart!
Caravan
Notes:
-So Althena’s Guard and The Chosen actually harass the caravan for being happy, singing, dancing and bringing joy and excitement to the people of LUNAR. This speaks to me honestly because my time in America was met with all sorts of harassment from the local police just for being myself and having fun and maybe being a non-typical American and model citizen. I’m glad Working Designs somehow worked that into the story that perhaps the police and Conservative-Christians somehow look down on those that are not like them and not brought up exactly the way they were. I mean it’s 2023. Go figure? Not everyone lives in a time capsule.
I used to regard Jean and her story/backstory/vignette as one of the bottom of the barrel typical sub plots, but now that I’m paying attention, looking closer to detail and analyzing I totally feel her. I think it’s interesting she’s running from her past and decided to become a common dancer. Imagine all the crazy stories a lowly gas station attendant or accountant or something has to tell? I myself find common ground with blue collar workers as I think they’re the backbone of America/society in general and they’re just people’s people.
-The old woman in the caravan that makes Jean’s outfits & costumes is actually named Silky I just found that to be hysterically comical. LMAO
Ah oh yes another bromide! Adding another one to the collection!!!!
I actually had to stop early cause it’s so hot and dusty in the household today I wear contacts and I can barely open my eyes. It’s just so unpleasant. I’ll promise to play more later for sure.
Personal story: Dad’s friend in Manila came-thru and found a used PS4 Pro (no box) at Greenhills mall for ₱16,000 / $269.00. So score! I’m just afraid it’s not gonna come with the original cables so I have to research a HD cable that can output to 4K I think they’re different from the standard ones.
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#10 session
So, I made it to Takkar. I would love to go on but taking things in baby-steps is a nice change of pace (for analysis) rather than getting as much playtime in- in a day. I love taking things slow now. So Takkar seems like yet another sleepy town with the usual types of people. What's with the two sets of twins in the village though? That's rather peculiar to just dump that in- in the game right now, huh? There's a lot of duality symbolism in LUNAR like with Lunar the planet/world/moon you have the Blue Star which accompanies it. Love is a strong storybook point to the game, with a boy/& girl. They've mentioned twins in the past before like Laticia and Alicia the twin Dragonmaster sisters. Female Dragonmasters? The Goddess Althena and Lucia seems to be a bit of a focal point in Eternal Blue Complete, we can't forget about that.
I've saved in front of Lemina lol, so I'm caught up with ya! Leo is annoyingly persistent as I've said before. He just doesn't know when to stop. He could have some sorta problem?
Again, I've poured out all of the thoughts in my brain about the game for today, so I'll see you tomorrow or next time! Take care! :D
Edit:
Personal notes: So I realized as I was playing the game that this style of a RPG is really the kind I most gravitate towards, I'll try to use all the adjectives: classic, traditional, 90s(?), turnbased, linear. These, really, are the type of JRPGs I enjoy to play and love the most. They seemed to just be released in droves when I was a kid/teenager. It made me feel like maybe I should look into or concentrate on the much older games, instead of always looking forward to buying the new-style jRPGs they have now. I definitely have more fun playing an old favorite and re-learning all the things I love about it, and using an adult brain to analyze things even deeper. Sometimes I feel people look at me weird when I keep track of how many times I re-played a game (*for some reason people don't count repetition in statistics*). I certainly count how many times I've completely worked over and worn-out any old thing I love. Maybe I'm trying to see if I can break it?
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So Takkar seems like yet another sleepy town with the usual types of people. What's with the two sets of twins in the village though?
Ooooh! I hadn't noticed that! You're right, though, several twins in this town. I only noticed the two that owned the Bodacious Babes Inn (or whatever it was called). Good catch.
There's a lot of duality symbolism in LUNAR like with Lunar the planet/world/moon you have the Blue Star which accompanies it. Love is a strong storybook point to the game, with a boy/& girl. They've mentioned twins in the past before like Laticia and Alicia the twin Dragonmaster sisters. Female Dragonmasters? The Goddess Althena and Lucia seems to be a bit of a focal point in Eternal Blue Complete, we can't forget about that.
Good reading on the thematic elements of the game. I never even thought about it that deeply, but there's definitely a lot of symbolism in this game involving duality and twins, and like you said, ultimately paralleling the nature of Althena and Lucia. Nice!
Personal notes: So I realized as I was playing the game that this style of a RPG is really the kind I most gravitate towards, I'll try to use all the adjectives: classic, traditional, 90s(?), turnbased, linear. These, really, are the type of JRPGs I enjoy to play and love the most. They seemed to just be released in droves when I was a kid/teenager. It made me feel like maybe I should look into or concentrate on the much older games, instead of always looking forward to buying the new-style jRPGs they have now. I definitely have more fun playing an old favorite and re-learning all the things I love about it, and using an adult brain to analyze things even deeper. Sometimes I feel people look at me weird when I keep track of how many times I re-played a game (*for some reason people don't count repetition in statistics*). I certainly count how many times I've completely worked over and worn-out any old thing I love. Maybe I'm trying to see if I can break it?
I love jRPGs and love the old-school ones like you, but I admit that I do like to change it up and sometimes need to change it up to more action-RPG hybrids (the Elder Scrolls series is a definite favorite). There's definitely a nostalgia factor for me; it's not just about the music style and sound samples or the pixel graphics, nor the similarity in gameplay, but I think the writing and speed of the stories has a certain era-specific tone. It's hard to articulate. That era from like 1992 to maybe 1999 has a certain certain sameness to how the games *feel* even if they are very, very different. They're like a comfort food!
I also replay the same games, but those are mostly my personal favorites: games from the Mana series, the Chrono games, the SNES and PSX era of Final Fantasy, Terranigma, and of course, LUNAR. Generally I have to really love a game to replay it, but if I do love it, I normally replay them at least once every four or five years.
I actually had suggested that I’m up for a second round with another game, but you choose this time (if you want)! I was kinda thinking/interested about doing this with a Chrono game.
Definitely! I think a Chrono Trigger play-through would be fun, or even one of the ROM hacks. I played Chrono Cross when the remaster came out, so I need a little bit more before I pick it or Radical Dreamers, but it's been a few years since I've played through Trigger. I'm down!
...Jean ... I think it’s interesting she’s running from her past and decided to become a common dancer. Imagine all the crazy stories a lowly gas station attendant or accountant or something has to tell? I myself find common ground with blue collar workers as I think they’re the backbone of America/society in general and they’re just people’s people.
Her story is definitely a bit of a trope, but I do like her longing to use her athleticism and skills for good (like dancing). A humble, non-assuming career choice, and like you, I'm all about the mundane and blue collar workforce. We've chatted in Discord DMs before about how I have a little farm now, and I love it. If I could become a farmer full-time and keep the bills paid without accumulating both debt and risk, I would. I see so much value in the often-unsung career paths, and I like the stories capturing people in the mundane having moments of epic delivery (however that may look).
Alex from LUNAR was a great example of this; a simple boy in a small town who wanted to be Dragonmaster but that thought wasn't really something he took too seriously. Had it not been for the events with Luna, he probably would have returned from Meribia and settled down in Burg and lived simply. Even as he becomes a hero, he has simple roots and never strays too far from them.
There's actually a lot of other thoughts you've had this week that I haven't been able to respond to. I had the flu or something like it pretty bad and have been out of commission most of the week, and then I was trying to work while in a feverish fugue because of some project commitments. My thoughts have been all over the place, so my apologies for that.
I'm diving into the game but can only play for a few minutes. My son has his first basketball game pretty early in the AM, and seeing that it's nearly midnight here, I'll need to hit the hay. I'll double post with specific game thoughts. :D
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Takkar / Mountain Pass
Alright, I met blonde Mia Ausa - I mean the fabulous (and greedy) Lemina. She and Ramus (the first one from SSSC) would have made best frenemies.
Climbing up the mountain pass to Nota, I have to reiterate that I don't like the dash mechanic in this game. The layouts of the levels - often paths from A to B - offer little to navigate to evade battles. Not that I want to right now, but still... I can't wait to get the items later in the story that let me dash better. I remember there are a few, one of them being equip-able pajama's (that have a side effect of making that character asleep when battles start, haha).
Spooky Mansion
I reached the "mansion" (which looks like an oversized shack from the outside) and navigate it's maze-like interior and fought the boss.
I really, really wish that EBC got the same level of remake and enhancement that SSSC received. I feel like there was a pretty big advancement between SSS and SSSC that EB to EBC just didn't get. Both the quality of the environments (tilesets) and the level design just don't have the same quality that SSSC has. Maybe it's just me...?
I'm saving in front of the magic carpet and stopping here for the evening. Until next time!
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Ah! I was waiting for you to respond before I get another session in! :D
I love jRPGs and love the old-school ones like you, but I admit that I do like to change it up and sometimes need to change it up to more action-RPG hybrids (the Elder Scrolls series is a definite favorite). There's definitely a nostalgia factor for me; it's not just about the music style and sound samples or the pixel graphics, nor the similarity in gameplay, but I think the writing and speed of the stories has a certain era-specific tone. It's hard to articulate. That era from like 1992 to maybe 1999 has a certain certain sameness to how the games *feel* even if they are very, very different. They're like a comfort food!
See; I thought I liked to switch it up too but I just don't really like action-RPGs as much as turnbased. I want to be able to eat a sandwich while I game. (seriously) I always have a drink and sometimes maybe even a snack if I'm on an epic session and nothing but a turnbased RPG allows me to eat while I game. A growing boy's gotta have his food! The Tales of games have been kinda lackluster for me and personally I'm just not good at action elements even with platformers. I think I have more of a strategic mind so when I make a move that I know is right I want it to count. Kinda of like chess? Action-RPGs I seem to just mash the buttons a lot and hope I get through ea. battle. *shrug* I do like Secret of Mana though. I mean but that one's just a classic.
I also replay the same games, but those are mostly my personal favorites: games from the Mana series, the Chrono games, the SNES and PSX era of Final Fantasy, Terranigma, and of course, LUNAR. Generally I have to really love a game to replay it, but if I do love it, I normally replay them at least once every four or five years.
Yeah I re-play a lot of RPGs just to re-read the text again, I often forget what certain NPCs have said and I like to memorize lines, analyze what ea. line "could mean?" and recite my favorite ones. I was thinking about re-playing the orig. Final Fantasy VII to re-read the text before I play the Remake.
Definitely! I think a Chrono Trigger play-through would be fun, or even one of the ROM hacks. I played Chrono Cross when the remaster came out, so I need a little bit more before I pick it or Radical Dreamers, but it's been a few years since I've played through Trigger. I'm down!
Well, I was thinking since this is a Chrono site that you would be down to play Chrono Trigger. ;) I actually love that game a lot it was actually one of my first RPGs if not the first (and I think it's a lot of other gamers' "first RPG"). I love the diff characters and everything and I always thought the girls looked pretty cute. And the guys were always looking cool. I loved the music and everything. I always wanted to get all the endings; but whenever I replay I always get the same one. "The One Where Crono's Mom Jumps Through The Gate" If for some reason I always get that one. Maybe if we play CT you can steer me in the direction of another ending! :)
Her story is definitely a bit of a trope, but I do like her longing to use her athleticism and skills for good (like dancing). A humble, non-assuming career choice, and like you, I'm all about the mundane and blue collar workforce. We've chatted in Discord DMs before about how I have a little farm now, and I love it. If I could become a farmer full-time and keep the bills paid without accumulating both debt and risk, I would. I see so much value in the often-unsung career paths, and I like the stories capturing people in the mundane having moments of epic delivery (however that may look).
I actually hate the word trope. The word itself seems to be a trope in and of itself. :p Yeah Jean is blipping on my radar this time, though a bit flying under the radar. Her story piqued my interest this time for sure.
Alex from LUNAR was a great example of this; a simple boy in a small town who wanted to be Dragonmaster but that thought wasn't really something he took too seriously. Had it not been for the events with Luna, he probably would have returned from Meribia and settled down in Burg and lived simply. Even as he becomes a hero, he has simple roots and never strays too far from them.
I actually think the "commoner who comes from nothing; and becomes King or destroys the Evil Empire" is a bit of a trope, as well. I think it's a pretty dangerous one, realistically. There's so many RPG stories where a lowly common boy comes out of nowhere, rises up in the ranks and ultimately becomes a ruler of a powerful nation or defeats the evil. Ryu from the BoF games comes to mind, Delita from FFT being a poor serf to becoming king, Riou from Suikoden being a simple boy from a simple town and ending up ruling an entire Liberation Army. Even small examples like Aeris from Final Fantasy being a simple flower girl, or Milea the servant/maid from Vanguard Bandits driving her own mecha robot in battle. I don't think there's any other reason for this other than kids thinking it's cool? But I mean, I think politicians and rulers of nations and armies in the real world actually look at this and see if it's true or not. Possible assassins in the ranks? You always have to be watching your back to see if the cook slips poison into the king's food?
There's actually a lot of other thoughts you've had this week that I haven't been able to respond to. I had the flu or something like it pretty bad and have been out of commission most of the week, and then I was trying to work while in a feverish fugue because of some project commitments. My thoughts have been all over the place, so my apologies for that.
No apologies needed we all have our own responsibilities we have to take care of, I myself am quite busy taking care of the farmhouse and lot so I mostly game at night now. Sometimes I find myself having to hold back though because I know we're taking baby-steps haha. Ultimately, it's really nice for me and relaxing.
Keep up the good work. I'll post again after I'm done w/ my sesh.
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#11 session
Have you reached the 10-hour mark yet Boo? I'm just a bit past it.
So for the Ghost Manor I like to level up and grind in here I dunno why. Usually, I at least make 2-trips in here the first to just get all the treasure chests, then I leave and go back to Takkar to get all the equips I didn't have enough Silver for the first go round so: the mace, the fan and another Chain Mail for Ronfar. This usually makes the 2nd-trip in much easier and I can save up on MP for the boss fight cause at this stage of the game it's relatively early and I don't like using Star Lights and Healing Nuts. Star Lights were fairly uncommon throughout SSSC and I don't know EBC quite well so I'm scared to use them to save them for the Final Boss Fight.
Item shops don't sell Healing Nuts yet so I don't want to use them at all! I don't want to use Star Lights at all! But this boss fight is so stupid sometimes I wind up using one on Hiro/Ronfar to attack/heal right at the very end of the fight.
I like to just grind in here because, I think- After you use the Magic Carpet there's no way to go back and I'll miss all the previous places you've been to. I almost wanna go back and talk to everyone again before going down the cliff! ^_^;;
I have some stuff to do so I saved in the manor. I might play some more later, I might not- I might just play again cont tomorrow.
I thought it's interesting the Ghost Manor really is ghostly like with ghosts and stuff. The Susie Deaths are a unique enemy. I assume it's a ghost. Jean's Sleep Step dance works perfectly against it though I want to save her MP for the boss fight so I just wind up mash-attacking it. The strategy this part in the game ramps up cause you have to start using your skills / and a lot of Ronfar's healing to get through the monster battles. I would just dash through them if I had my druthers and save it for the boss. If you're fine with your level.
I might talk to everyone in Takkar again to see if I can get more information.
Edit:
I don't know if I'm allowed to triple-post, and I'd rather not, so I just edited.
Heads up: about our next game of choice I just remembered that I might not be able to hook up my SNES console to my new 4K T.V. to play Chrono Trigger since it's done away with the white/red/yellow hook-up in the back, so. It's hard for me right now to play on retro systems since I'm still adjusting to how a 4K T.V. works but I'll try to do research and see if I can find some sorta wire for the back of the SNES that hooks into an HDMI. For the time being, maybe a more modern RPG (like a PS1 RPG I can play on my PS3) although Chrono Trigger for SNES is still my no. 1 choice as long as I can figure it out.
#11.5 session
Ok, so I beat the Mega Magic Tester and Lemina joined. I'll try not to backtrack to try to just talk to people again. LOL This's the part of the game where you can really play around and have fun with random battles since Lemina comes with a lot of powerful magic to toast enemies.
Regarding Lucia's AI: She's still running away from casual battles but not boss fights (I don't think the game allows you to). Maybe she still doesn't feel as close to Hiro and the party? She's still casting Napalm Shot and Magic Barrier once-in-a-Blue Moon but she still defends and runs around the map a lot.
That was an annoying-ass boss battle. I'm trying a new strategy this time of using Jean to use items like herbs to heal and not relying on Ronfar so much cause he is slow and Jean is the fastest character in the game so she is auto. on item-duty. I went through so many herbs in that fight.
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Have you reached the 10-hour mark yet Boo? I'm just a bit past it.
I'm at about 8.5 hours. I haven't gotten off the beaten track as much as you in exploring events and NPC dialogue. I don't even think to do it, so you're ahead of me in that regard, haha...
I don't like using Star Lights and Healing Nuts. Star Lights were fairly uncommon throughout SSSC and I don't know EBC quite well so I'm scared to use them to save them for the Final Boss Fight.
I'm a packrat and refuse to use any items unless I need them. I'm the guy who reached the last boss having saved all my Elixers and Megaelixers and whatever the top-tier recovery items are, haha. And I make my games harder by being that way!
I thought it's interesting the Ghost Manor really is ghostly like with ghosts and stuff.
I thought the same thing! Lemina is clearly using this "haunted" manor as a testbed for magic recruits, and yet there's some actual haunting going on here...? Just wonky writing, LUNAR team!
Now back to the game!
Takkar Mountain Pass
I can't remember if I get to return to any of these places later in the story or during the epilogue. I hope so! Regardless, I'm jumping on that magic rug and movin' on!
When the team fell from the magic carpet, I couldn't help but be reminded of that scene with the hot air balloon in SSS. It would have been great had they done the same here with an animated scene of them all spiraling out of country screaming. I always chuckle at that story event -- https://youtu.be/yK3ZlI2q9XQ
Bandit Butte
Nothing really of interest here story-wise. I picked up the Shiro Crest in the cave and gave it to Hiro so his range is a bit better.
I picked up the Wind Staff and gave it to Lemina. I meant to equip it and accidentally ended up giving her a dagger. Imagine my surprise during the next battle when she pulls out her little knife to go stab one of the giant wasp enemies. Ha!
Where are the actual bandits in this level...?
Just thinking through the game mechanics:
- I like that inventories are so much easier to manage in EBC. You don't have to worry about each individual only being able to hold a single item (plus the bag). I never liked that aspect of SSSC.
- The game has a lot of these mini-dungeons that just sort of feel very "sameness" and are all A-to-B zig-zags. SSSC had better level design, in my opinion. I remember the first time I played SSSC getting so turned around in some of those forest maps -- the Weird Woods (or whatever it was called) was a struggle for me.
Out the other end, I'm exploring the world map before I move on. Unfortunately, the Madoria Carnival isn't open yet. There's another location SE of the Carnival that I can't even access on the world map, and I don't remember what it is. Now I'm curious!
East Nota
Another town taken advantage of by Althena's Chosen. In this case, they acquired that guy's house in the bottom left corner. Otherwise Nota doesn't seem like a bad place; it reminds me a bit of Moracco with the bazaars and bartering and everyone trying to sell you something.
I'm saving at the bridge and stopping for now, as I remember what happens once I cross...
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#12 session
I'm not in the best mood today.
-Yeah, I try to save all my mega-heal items for the Final Boss as well. I actually use it at that time though. o_O;; That's an interesting take on making the game harder.
-Lol yeah the Ghost Manor is a weird dungeon. haha
*Oh you can definitely return to this and previous areas later on in the game so don't worry. Everything opens up in the Epilogue. C:
*Yup the magic carpet scene reminds me of the hot air balloon ride. Would have loved to see an anime cutscene of them screaming as well. That scene makes me dizzy now at my age though.
*If you equip the Snake and Shiro Crest together you'll get a boost in attack + range, so I opted for Ronfar, to give him better distance.
*I actually mean to play around with the equips at this point, actually, I wanted to equip a Dagger on Jean just to see what it'll do?
*In the Sega CD version there are actual bandits in this dungeon, and there was a mini-boss battle with the Phantom Sentry (a big boss bandit), I dunno why they took it out of this game. It seems to be an iconic moment for this game as LUNAR has random enemies/bosses like the Inca God? (?)
(https://i.imgur.com/AMcfiSV.jpg)
*Yeah Ruby must have a deep pocket. I like the Final Fantasy-esque limitless unlimited item menu too as well I think all RPGs should be that way I don't think it takes away from the fantasy element at all. Yeah I don't like having to individually equip items on characters in order to use it either, but I didn't mind in SSSC.
*I thought the two-screen area behind Ronfar's house kinda corny in terms of dungeon design. With it's like 5 enemies.
I've stopped in front of Nota for now. I intend to explore the world map as well before I enter Nota and continue on with the story. Funny that you say it reminds you of Morocco, I was just thinking we're not out of the Salyan Desert yet so every town we've visited so far is like a desert town. With sand and everything and stuff.
I plan to explore more a little later.
Edit:
#12.5 session
Cont from last night this morning.
I think the tower to the east of Nota is the Mystic Ruins. I found it funny they didn't even try to come up with a reason for you not being able to enter, they just won't even load the entrance map. Yeah the Madoria Carnival is closed for right now I think because the Guard is harassing the Caravan and slowing them down.
I entered East Nota. Yup the guy that sold his house to the Chosen is pretty funny. There's not a real Sanctuary in Nota apparently.
The Mayor's house is pretty interesting as it introduces/gives us a preview of the Rememberizer. If you remember in the first game, it allows you to replay the anime cutscenes you've viewed. It's not available until much later, don't worry.
Seems like a sleepy/bazaar-esque desert town to me. I stopped in front of the bridge too. Will wait for you before continuing on! :D
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#13 session
I'm still on the bridge in East Nota. I'll wait for you.
While I was waiting (I just had to play today), I went back to the Bandit Butte and leveled up a little bit more. Lol at Butte Interior (per the save screen). This's a good place to grind with Lemina just casting Burning Rain in every battle, and leaving when her MP is depleted. The Parasite enemy is atrocious but I figured out you can kill it in the first round by Jean using Butterfly Dance and Hiro using Boomerang. I leveled up in here until I could buy everything from the weapon shop in East Nota and have some money left over. This's a good place to grind cause the enemies drop a lot of Silver and give a decent amount of EXP.
I'm planning on going back and leveling up some more, I don't mind at all waiting for you. :D Cheers!
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I'm not in the best mood today.
We all have those days! :)
In the Sega CD version there are actual bandits in this dungeon, and there was a mini-boss battle with the Phantom Sentry (a big boss bandit), I dunno why they took it out of this game. It seems to be an iconic moment for this game as LUNAR has random enemies/bosses like the Inca God? (?)
That makes so much more sense, haha... I didn't realize that ESB actually did have some changes. I was thinking it was more of a port than SSSC and didn't have as much re-work. Once we're done with the playthrough, I'll have to go back and look through the changes!
The Mayor's house is pretty interesting as it introduces/gives us a preview of the Rememberizer. If you remember in the first game, it allows you to replay the anime cutscenes you've viewed. It's not available until much later, don't worry.
Is that where the daughter was watching the (flickering) image of her lost love? I can't remember exactly what it was, but it was something like that. Fun fact: when I first went into the house and saw the flickering NPC/hologram, I thought it was a glitch in the game.
As for the gaming sessions... I didn't get to play on Monday and only got to play today for about 20 minutes. I've been in the city for work and then I got home, changed, and departed for my daughter's school events. We didn't get home until late (like 9:45pm our time). It was a long day!
Bandit Butte
I knew that I had a really short play period today, so I decided to forego any plot advancements and just level-up some. I pretty much did the same as you. I went back to Bandit Butte and spammed them with spells to raise Silver and upgrade the rest of my armor.
Tomorrow I'll cross the Nota bridge and have yet another confrontation with Leo. As annoying as he is, I'm sort of rooting for him, haha... He's a good guy, just stubborn and blinded by zela. I'm also probably biased because I know he eventually turns things around.
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#14 session
I'm kinda busy today but I had to play just to relax and unwind. After the events in East Nota I made my way to the Madoria Carnival. Don't worry Boo, the next few events are just casual chitchatting with townsfolk or in this case carnivalfolk so there isn't really much effort or thought involved, just enjoying the storyline. I meandered around the carnival avoiding the top-screen cause the next story event takes place there where you shoot out of the Magic Arrow to get away from Leo and the Guard.
The carnival has a lot of fun people to talk to, much more different than the sleepy desert citizens of the past few towns. You also get to meet the people you saw in the Illusion Forest again way back when so that was fun seeing what they do at the Carnival.
I'll probably explore more tomorrow morning but for the time being I stopped in front of the Giggle Den.
Just keep doing what you're doing Boo, I'm doing ok here!! I probably won't venture too far along into the story I'm taking care of the farmhouse and lot and I'm also doing a lot of exercising and self-care. Gaming is a hard hobby haha, so I like to take care of my body for those epic long sedentary endurance runs just sitting in front of the T.V.. :D Take care, Boo!
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East Nota
Crossing the bridge aaaaand... I'm pretty surprised at the responses from the townsfolk. They don't stan Leo like I do, haha. If you talk to them all after the events on the bridge, they're pretty lukewarm on Leo and his shenanigans.
Manoria Carnival
Drunk grandpas and missing kids... Jean talking about mysogeny and bunny-girl outfits... the overzealous Magic Cannon guys... It's been fun catching up!
Then Lucia gets the fun costume change. Can you imagine some of these as playable DLC costumes or something, haha... The first one wasn't so bad, the mustached swordsman disguise was hilarious, and the clown costume was... interesting. At least Hiro was kind enough to try and stop Ronfar from being a peeping tom! Maybe little Hiro is growing up after all!
I do like the outfits Lucia ends up in, though. The outfits in this game are very bohemian and I am here for it!
Mystic Ruins
Uh, ya'll went East instead of West. Whoops. Well, now I remember what purpose this location serves in-game. Interesting commentary about Lucia and her sacred spells between her and Lemina.
Another thing - the sound of the teleportation into the structure is the same teleportation sound from SSSC; I expected to hear the song from Vane after I teleported just because of muscle memory.
Alas, here is where I stop tonight. I'll catch you tomorrow, buddy!
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Lol, I actually think Leo is so annoying. I actually said "I hate Leo" when he struck the Magic Arrow before it launched. There's something about him that's so... unappealing, to me. Just his blind loyalty to Althena and the Guard/Chosen. It's almost like a certain naivete about just go about his job, not really knowing anything about anything else. Anyways, huh.
The Madoria Carnival was fun.
The scenes with Lucia getting a dress change was interesting, though I doubt it has anything to do with the story. I think it kinda shows that the girls are getting along, and Hiro & Ronfar are sorta buddying-up too. The party's getting along quite well. I was thinking about how it's so interesting in RPGs that you just meet someone, and they immediately join you and fight for you. Sometimes some characters lack any real reason other than to be a pawn/chess piece in battle.
Yeah, her outfit is really nice. I really enjoyed the scene where the girls were playing dress-up like as if they're in their room, all giggling together and having fun. Very like 80s or 90s? lol
So I stopped at the Mystic Ruins but I've done my chores for today so I'll prolly end up playing some more laters. I was thinking to myself maybe they don't let you go into the Mystic Ruins from the world map because there's no entrance on the ground floor? It was interesting/funny that they entered through the top - from the sky.
I was gonna say that the events in Nota harped on the whole 'duality' aspect to LUNAR once again - with West and East Nota being "separated" or "joined together" by the bridge depending on how you look at it. Maybe it's pointing to "what joins" the two parts together? In regards to, Lunar and the Blue Star or the Goddess Althena and Lucia? Just something to ponder about and some food for thought.
Edit:
So you finally meet Ghaleon in the Mystic Ruins. I know I'm probably going against the grain here when I say this but I thought he was much better in SSSC as a standalone one-time bad guy. I thought he did his thing, and he won and done. I don't particularly care to dive into the backstory of villains I just find all bad people one-dimensional cause they are evil. BUT, I know a lot of fans like him so I'll give understanding his motives in this game a chance.
I got through the first floor of floating platforms and then I saved once I got to the second floor, I'm kinda tired tonight and I have to do some e-shopping for myself and my dogs. I'll most-likely cont tomorrow morning. See you around, Boo! :D
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Lol, I actually think Leo is so annoying. I actually said "I hate Leo" when he struck the Magic Arrow before it launched. There's something about him that's so... unappealing, to me. Just his blind loyalty to Althena and the Guard/Chosen. It's almost like a certain naivete about just go about his job, not really knowing anything about anything else. Anyways, huh.
I don't *actually* stan him and my sarcasm probably isn't coming through very well, but I do think he's an interesting character. He's got a great character design, but of course, he's the blind zealot whose judgement is clouded due to his fanaticism. He makes for a good foil for Hiro, even if he is over-the-top and annoying. What I *do* like about his character arc is that he eventually comes around, although it happens far too late into the story. I think it would be cool if we saw more of a gradual change and had him join maybe in the second arc or beginning of the third rather than right at the end. Show us more of that change and then let us spend time with him having been reformed and apologetic for his behavior.
Yeah, her outfit is really nice. I really enjoyed the scene where the girls were playing dress-up like as if they're in their room, all giggling together and having fun. Very like 80s or 90s? lol
I kinda got Sailor Moon or magical girl anime vibes from the scene, haha...
I was gonna say that the events in Nota harped on the whole 'duality' aspect to LUNAR once again - with West and East Nota being "separated" or "joined together" by the bridge depending on how you look at it. Maybe it's pointing to "what joins" the two parts together? In regards to, Lunar and the Blue Star or the Goddess Althena and Lucia? Just something to ponder about and some food for thought.
Really, really good callout. You're better at picking up some of that nuance than I am! In hindsight, that's totally what's happening here and is good writing. I feel like jRPGs don't do that sort of parallel/subtle storytelling that much.
Mystics Ruins
So you finally meet Ghaleon in the Mystic Ruins.
Did you notice he said a few words funny? Such as 'again' as 'ageen'? Minor observation, but I don't remember him doing that in SSSC. Also, his whole "world on the halfshell" comment is so ridiculous for some reason, I laugh every time I hear it.
I know I'm probably going against the grain here when I say this but I thought he was much better in SSSC as a standalone one-time bad guy. I thought he did his thing, and he won and done.
I'm with you here. I've always felt his inclusion here felt like fan service and a bit odd. His eventual betrayal of Zophar as "see, I'm redeemed and was doing this to atone for my past sins" was also just sort of meh. I like Zophar as a new villain and would have preferred he just had new minions, or perhaps if some sort of SSS cameo was necessary, maybe one of the Vile Tribe sisters?
Anyway, I completely forgot about Ghaleon's garden at the bottom of the tower, as well as the faeries. It's interesting to see this foreshadowing about his true intentions and his love for the faeries and mankind. They particularly mention that he's sad, doesn't smile a lot, and thinks about the past a lot.
Standoff with the Dragonship Destiny
Uh, thanks Ghaleon. And glad to see Leo finally knocked down a peg.
East Nota
I liked the story about the rich man trying to buy the Blue Star. It was a lot of dialogue, but a good story.
West Nota
"I hope you people aren't planning on disregarding my advice and heading for Meribia anyway. The last travelers who ignored me came back here with frostbite and permanently pointy nipples." Oy vey! Haha!!!
We also get our first reference to the descendant of Ramus that lives in Meribia.
I also learned that nacho's exist in the world of LUNAR, as do mail-order-brides.
I upgraded my gear and found that I have an Ancient Dagger. I don't remember picking that up. Was that a drop somewhere?
World Map
New theme song and snow! Zulan, here we come!
Zulan
The first time I tried to play EBC I actually got stuck here in the Zulan mountains. I just kept grinding and needed more Silver to upgrade my gear and got burned out from the game, so I quit playing. It took me about a year to come back and replay the game, and I restarted it because I'd forgotten most of what happened.
I'm also finding that I have more Silver than I normally do. I guess I've been grinding more or something.
One thing I've been doing is saving on every screen to see what the programmers called that particular map/screen. Sometimes they're weird, such as the Caravan in the Illusion Forest, which was called "Caravan 3." Interestingly enough, the Zulan save map is currently called "Zulan Blizzard."
The one guy has a great vibe: "Some people believe that cold weather is invigorating for the body and the mind. Some people also think you can find water by pointing a stick at the ground. People are stupid. It's a fact, and it's also my motto." Then, if you talk to him again, he says, "I can't believe my friends talked me into moving here with them. "We'll ski every day!", they said. They forgot to mention that you need to have feeling in your feet before you can ski. Bastards."
I'm saving here and logging off. Stay classy, my friend! Talk at you tomorrow!
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I don't *actually* stan him and my sarcasm probably isn't coming through very well, but I do think he's an interesting character. He's got a great character design, but of course, he's the blind zealot whose judgement is clouded due to his fanaticism. He makes for a good foil for Hiro, even if he is over-the-top and annoying. What I *do* like about his character arc is that he eventually comes around, although it happens far too late into the story. I think it would be cool if we saw more of a gradual change and had him join maybe in the second arc or beginning of the third rather than right at the end. Show us more of that change and then let us spend time with him having been reformed and apologetic for his behavior.
I actually don’t hate Leo per se, I just find most to a lot of his actions and behavior in the beginning of the game to be kind of stupid, dumb? Like he won’t listen and just stands his ground blindly following Althena’s every order. AND he’s in a position of power in the Guard so he’s almost abusing his authority over the people like some fanatical crooked cop IRL. I think it’s funny when everything he stood for and believes in crumbles before him, and THEN that’s when he finally comes around when everything is just so obvious—it was obvious from the beginning he just refused to believe it. Stubborn, stupid. I do like his character design though and he is a beastman like Jessica, and he controls earth magic. And he’s the brother to Mauri, who was my favorite character when I was like 13-14. o_O;;
I kinda got Sailor Moon or magical girl anime vibes from the scene, haha...
Love Sailor Moon and 90s anime.
Really, really good callout. You're better at picking up some of that nuance than I am! In hindsight, that's totally what's happening here and is good writing. I feel like jRPGs don't do that sort of parallel/subtle storytelling that much.
I just pay attention to the text and ask “Why do they want the player to know this right now?” since I figure most video games you can play without any real text and figure out what to do so any real text they throw out at’cha is like a cherry on top for me. And I like to read a lot and just figure out why? a lot.
Did you notice he said a few words funny? Such as 'again' as 'ageen'?
Yeah, I find a lot of people just sound more nasally when they’re really trying to act. Like that upper-crust renaissance-sy sound.
I'm with you here. I've always felt his inclusion here felt like fan service and a bit odd. His eventual betrayal of Zophar as "see, I'm redeemed and was doing this to atone for my past sins" was also just sort of meh. I like Zophar as a new villain and would have preferred he just had new minions, or perhaps if some sort of SSS cameo was necessary, maybe one of the Vile Tribe sisters?
I think you hit the nail on the head on why they wrote him back into the script. I like Zophar a lot more too. I don’t really care about bad guys in any medium, fiction or IRL.
Anyway, I completely forgot about Ghaleon's garden at the bottom of the tower, as well as the faeries. It's interesting to see this foreshadowing about his true intentions and his love for the faeries and mankind. They particularly mention that he's sad, doesn't smile a lot, and thinks about the past a lot.
I thought you would notice cause it’s kinda of a bit obvious but the Mystic Ruins are probably the remains of the Grindery from the first game, so this’s probably the Vane area from SSSC. (I know you like comparing the maps) I think the Secret Garden of fairies gives it away and it makes sense that Ghaleon would almost make it his house and live there cause that’s where he was killed. Kind of like a huge headstone.
-The Ancient Dagger is from Gwyn’s basement when he asks you to find a weapon in the beginning of the game. You’re so forgetful! C:
-Yeah I always get stuck in Zulan with not enough silver and I’m forced to grind.
Personal note/Good news: Boo, I have some good news in regards to our next dual-play. I had forgot I ordered this little thing on Shopee (our version of Amazon):
(https://i.imgur.com/YVV0rRW.png)
It's called a Mini, and it allows me to hook up the SNES' composite cables to an HDMI thus I can hook it up to my 4K T.V..
I haven't busted out this bad boy in a hot minute.
(https://i.imgur.com/LqfoTb3.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/Q5SnaXw.png)
I'll have no problem over here on my end if we choose to play Chrono Trigger next, my man!
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I thought you would notice cause it’s kinda of a bit obvious but the Mystic Ruins are probably the remains of the Grindery from the first game, so this’s probably the Vane area from SSSC. (I know you like comparing the maps) I think the Secret Garden of fairies gives it away and it makes sense that Ghaleon would almost make it his house and live there cause that’s where he was killed. Kind of like a huge headstone.
YES! I didn't realize until I got to the garden and left, then it hit me... that was the Grindery! I even looked it up on Google to confirm that was the case. THAT is the right kind of fan service rather than a forced inclusion of a character like Ghaleon.
Yeah, I find a lot of people just sound more nasally when they’re really trying to act. Like that upper-crust renaissance-sy sound.
I specifically remember a scene on the Behind the Scenes Making of LUNAR disc in which they are interviewing the VA, and they talk about how he was chugging a gallon of milk to try and cough and sound like he was dying, hahaha...
-The Ancient Dagger is from Gwyn’s basement when he asks you to find a weapon in the beginning of the game. You’re so forgetful! C:
Apparently, lol... I've been taking ginko biloba to actually help with my memory. I am a tad forgetful and don't feel as mentally spry as I used to be, haha... For some reason I was thinking it was just a regular Dagger in Gwyn's basement. Whoops!
It's called a Mini, and it allows me to hook up the SNES' composite cables to an HDMI thus I can hook it up to my 4K T.V..
Dude, NIIIICE! That's awesome. Now if only there was a filter on these fancy televisions that gave a CRT effect. I had no idea until the past few years just how much the CRT televisions smoothed the lines of old video games. It's pretty jarring to see some of the comparisons.
I'll have no problem over here on my end if we choose to play Chrono Trigger next, my man!
Nice dude! I used to own an original SNES copy, but I let a friend borrow it back in college and he "lost it" -- I wish I had the backbone I have now to make him repay me. I'd had it since 1996 and it's one of the few physical pieces of video game history that I wish I physically owned (I switched to digital archives for everything below the Wii/PS3-era a few years ago and just do emulation now for those systems).
SIDE THOUGHT:
I don't write fan fiction or anything, but ever since playing this game my brain has been on fire with a hypothetical LUNAR story. I don't have anything specific, just things I'd like to see. Hypothetically. Once we're done we should talk about a dream list of what we'd wanna see if a new LUNAR game was ever created.
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I specifically remember a scene on the Behind the Scenes Making of LUNAR disc in which they are interviewing the VA, and they talk about how he was chugging a gallon of milk to try and cough and sound like he was dying, hahaha...
Lol yeah. Vic made John Truitt (the voice of Ghaleon) drink warm milk from Wendy's to make it seem like he was hacking up phlegm in his death-scene. That was pretty funny.
Apparently, lol... I've been taking ginko biloba to actually help with my memory. I am a tad forgetful and don't feel as mentally spry as I used to be, haha... For some reason I was thinking it was just a regular Dagger in Gwyn's basement. Whoops!
Oh, does ginko biloba help? I kinda feel that way too when I'm doing chores around the house I like go into one room and forget something in the other, ... We're getting old, man. lol The one thing that kinda helped me a little bit going about my day-to-day was quitting coffee. MAN, that was such a game changer. Noticed mood improvements, and better sleep because of it. I do drink energy drinks though so I have caffeine. I just don't like the taste of coffee/and the coffee breath that comes with it... When you're single it definitely helps to have fresh breath!
Dude, NIIIICE! That's awesome. Now if only there was a filter on these fancy televisions that gave a CRT effect. I had no idea until the past few years just how much the CRT televisions smoothed the lines of old video games. It's pretty jarring to see some of the comparisons.
I'm trying not to forget about my retro games/consoles because, for example, playing LUNAR 2 right now reminds me that these are the types of games I like and enjoy playing... and analyzing... There's just something about the RPGs that we grew up with that not even a 4K game can even compare to, it's like there was magic in the air during the late 90s.
Nice dude! I used to own an original SNES copy, but I let a friend borrow it back in college and he "lost it" -- I wish I had the backbone I have now to make him repay me. I'd had it since 1996 and it's one of the few physical pieces of video game history that I wish I physically owned (I switched to digital archives for everything below the Wii/PS3-era a few years ago and just do emulation now for those systems).
I had a similar story happen to me when I leant my copy of Xenogears (+ strategy guide) to a friend, and when I went to ask for it back he replied with "Oh, I sold it to pay my rent." I was in shock. Looking back, I wish I took him to Judge Judy or small-claims court or something but I was just THAT good of a friend I let it roll off my back. I don't speak to him anymore.
Yeah, my RPGs are so special to me I call them my babies that I never sell them. I will trade though if there's something I really want (Usually a Working Designs game).
Once we're done we should talk about a dream list of what we'd wanna see if a new LUNAR game was ever created.
Oh definitely I don't really write anything down so-to-speak but I'm sure I've ruminated about possible scenarios I'd like to see for a LUNAR 3 if it ever came to fruit.
#15 session
I'm kinda lagging behind I just got the PS4 Pro so I've been integrating it into the "lineup" and it's eating up a fair bit of my time over here! I was also messing around with the SNES to ensure our next dual-play is in the works.
I'm making my way to Zulan! I did a detour to the Madoria Carnival and no one really changes their line except a few like Giban and Katarina the fortuneteller who gives the player some really philosophical food for thought, lol.
I visited East Nota again and talked to everybody again. The kid that hates his dad made me actually laugh about "He just wants me to be a merchant like him, and support him when he gets older. I hate him!" For some reason, that resonated with me! There were a few other cheeky townspeople too!
For now, I stopped at the bridge again before heading into West Nota. I'll probly play a little more again later, and will try to make it to Zulan tonight (if not tomorrow).
Good speaking to you again, Boo! :D
Edit:
#15.5 session
I'm glad to say, I'm glad Zophar zapped the *bleep* out of Leo. I haven't felt so satisfied about something in ages.
I took a tour of West Nota and thought everyone was hilarious.
-Obviously the main point of interest is Kyle, Julia and Romeo.
-I think it's interesting how writers in RPGs have random people living together in each house. Like in West Nota, a brother and a sister live together. That just strikes me as odd cause in America you grow up with your immediate family, move out live on your own at 18 and just kinda get married. I've never found myself living with anybody else or a complete stranger, to be frank, I'd rather live alone if the other household member wasn't my wife. It seems a little un-American to have random couplings of people living together? To me anyway.
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I haven't been able to play too much yesterday or today. Today was just more running around the mountain fighting battles so I can earn enough Silver to upgrade my weapons and armor -- this town offered a lot of upgrades! I was going to play more tonight but I'm nursing a mild migraine, so I'm going to avoid screen time and just lay with a heating pad.
Oh, does ginko biloba help? I kinda feel that way too when I'm doing chores around the house I like go into one room and forget something in the other, ... We're getting old, man. lol The one thing that kinda helped me a little bit going about my day-to-day was quitting coffee.
I can't really tell any personal enhancements as a result of taking ginko biloba. I take two a day and have been for about six months, maybe? I'd like to step away from caffeine more. I tend to ebb and flow with my usage, though. Maybe it's time for me to stop!
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Don’t worry about being stuck in Zulan for the time-being. EVERYTIME I re-play LUNAR 2, I always have to spend a LOT of time in Zulan fighting battles just to upgrade the weapons & armor. It’s inevitable. — I mean you could opt to skip out on the upgrades and head into the snowstorm without them but that wouldn’t be any fun now would it? Missing out on any item and the one-liner item description from Working Designs would be a travesty?
I’m in Zulan right now. I’ll head into the blizzard right after you to grind for Silver. I notice it being kinda weird you just came from West Nota with its own equipment upgrades and you head into Zulan with updated stock of its own without a dungeon in between? That’s unheard of in the traditional, classic JRPG world! C:
*I started drinking coffee in college cause my parents always had a pot brewing at anytime of day in the house so I got mildly curious. I’ve never been a coffee drinker. I never drank coffee in high school. I quit during my swimming in college though. I started up again in my mid-20s, I dunno why, and I’ve now quit (prob for good) about a month ago.
I know it’s like ambrosia or the Drink of the Gods for people in the world for forever but it’s kinda like the garlic of drinks for me... — I just want to be able to get a date and fresh breath & oral hygiene is essential. I’m also worried about stains.
Whenever I quit an addictive habit I just replace it with something else (that’s hopefully better), in this case I went with hot chocolate. I quit during the Christmas season and hot chocolate and Doritos is one of my favorite combinations. Chocolate has a littlest bit of caffeine and that’s really all I need.
People seem to double-take when I tell them I don’t drink coffee though.
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Don’t worry about being stuck in Zulan for the time-being. EVERYTIME I re-play LUNAR 2, I always have to spend a LOT of time in Zulan fighting battles just to upgrade the weapons & armor. It’s inevitable. — I mean you could opt to skip out on the upgrades and head into the snowstorm without them but that wouldn’t be any fun now would it? Missing out on any item and the one-liner item description from Working Designs would be a travesty?
I'm grinding as we speak and may be able to save up enough Silver to fully upgrade before moving forward in the story. That being said, I have to travel for work tomorrow (Monday and Tuesday), and won't be playing tomorrow. I probably won't play again until late Tuesday night, and the next few sessions will be short just because I have to be up every day at 5:00am for my morning commute. I'm in the office Tues/Wed/Thurs and it's an hour drive one way, give or take. I loathe the corporate grind and wish I could get out of it.
I know it’s like ambrosia or the Drink of the Gods for people in the world for forever but it’s kinda like the garlic of drinks for me... — I just want to be able to get a date and fresh breath & oral hygiene is essential.
Hopefully you're able to put yourself out there, even if you are in a more rural area! I got lucky and married my college sweetheart, and we got married super young (probably too young). I was 22 and she was 20. We've had a lot of (normal) growing pains just in how we have changed and had to adapt to those changes in our partner, but all-in-all it's been a blast. Because of her, I missed the advent of the dating apps like Tinder and OK Cupid.
My best friend is single, never been married, and he's had quite the interesting adventures with the dating apps. I don't know if I could deal with them, haha...
I’m also worried about stains.
As for coffee, this is me, too. I drink about 12 ounces most mornings and then I drink two cans of soda a day. Give or take. I drink about 64 to 100 ounces of water, too. But I do worry about them staining my teeth, both now and as I grow older. I don't feel I *need* coffee, but it sure it nice. I also drink it dark and strong, so it's a good pick-me-up just in the warmth and flavor alone.
I quit during the Christmas season and hot chocolate and Doritos is one of my favorite combinations
This is not a flavor combination I saw coming! Salty and sweet, I can see it working, though. Are Dorito's there any different than the ones here in the States? I know sometimes the ingredients are a little different between various countries (for example, Coca-Cola sugars are different in Mexico and South America versus in the US).
What foods do you miss most from America that you can't get there? Whether it's restaurants or processed/canned/bagged goodies?
Alright, I'm going to go heads down and grind for a few more minutes. My goal is to fully upgrade everything tonight, so wish me luck!
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I'm grinding as we speak and may be able to save up enough Silver to fully upgrade before moving forward in the story. That being said, I have to travel for work tomorrow (Monday and Tuesday), and won't be playing tomorrow. I probably won't play again until late Tuesday night, and the next few sessions will be short just because I have to be up every day at 5:00am for my morning commute. I'm in the office Tues/Wed/Thurs and it's an hour drive one way, give or take. I loathe the corporate grind and wish I could get out of it.
Go get 'em, Boo! I remember when I was younger I used to read Dilbert comic strips and thought that working in an office when I got older would be fun, my Mom was an accountant and I thought she was doing well to contribute to the family's financial situation so I thought I could copy that. I ended up working in restaurants/food service though and falling in love with it, - which I think was a blast! One of my heroes growing up was Ray Kroc (the founder of McDonald's) and I loved fast-food and especially McDonald's when I moved to the States. He would come in after-hours and meticulously clean the corners of the tables that were bolted onto the floor. "The devil's in the details." I ended up loving cleaning greasy kitchens and cleaning my house is almost a way for me to relax. I learned working in restaurants that working with food and in the kitchen if it's not clean people can easily get sick plus I learned a lot of people's allergies to food and cross-contamination of stuff. Once I clean a good bit around then I can really sit down to game.
Don't worry, right now I'm still in Zulan (I'll wait for you) just leveling up and grinding. I have more than enough money and I've bought all the equip. upgrades so far. I'll just mindlessly fight battles until I feel like it's just a waste of time to do so, so I'll try not to go farther ahead until I've exhausted my options! :)
Hopefully you're able to put yourself out there, even if you are in a more rural area! I got lucky and married my college sweetheart, and we got married super young (probably too young). I was 22 and she was 20. We've had a lot of (normal) growing pains just in how we have changed and had to adapt to those changes in our partner, but all-in-all it's been a blast. Because of her, I missed the advent of the dating apps like Tinder and OK Cupid.
My best friend is single, never been married, and he's had quite the interesting adventures with the dating apps. I don't know if I could deal with them, haha...
I was kinda just busy in my 20s haha, maybe I was more about lust rather than love! It's so sweet that you managed to marry your college sweetheart!!, I was all about just networking, meeting new people, meeting girls at college parties, just being a regular ol' party animal!! TBH, I really wish I stayed home more during my 20s and went online and played games rather than going out so much, I really regret that if I can go back and do it over again I would just play more video games rather than listen to my friends.
As for coffee, this is me, too. I drink about 12 ounces most mornings and then I drink two cans of soda a day. Give or take. I drink about 64 to 100 ounces of water, too. But I do worry about them staining my teeth, both now and as I grow older. I don't feel I *need* coffee, but it sure it nice. I also drink it dark and strong, so it's a good pick-me-up just in the warmth and flavor alone.
A part of it for me is, I'm also kinda weirded out by coffee lovers and enthusiasts how they say "Coffee is Life" and they just wanna get wired, amped or whatever it is! When I used to drink it was usually because I was bored and wanted to break up the monotony with getting wired off coffee... but I see people and they need coffee to stay awake and function at work and I just think that's an unhealthy way to go about things. I'm also weirded out that so many Americans drink coffee on a regular basis... I almost feel like it's the "Kool-Aid" people are drinking and I don't want any part of it like the gov't puts something in the coffee lol.
I think I function perfectly fine off of it and just drinking hot chocolate. I'm a complete fish when it comes to drinking water though I just drink it all day non-stop. We don't have much juices in the house (all the sugars) so it's mostly just a LOT of water and hot choco to break up the monotony during the day.
This is not a flavor combination I saw coming! Salty and sweet, I can see it working, though. Are Dorito's there any different than the ones here in the States? I know sometimes the ingredients are a little different between various countries (for example, Coca-Cola sugars are different in Mexico and South America versus in the US).
What foods do you miss most from America that you can't get there? Whether it's restaurants or processed/canned/bagged goodies?
Dorito's are the same here, you can usually find them in the import aisle. I think the Coke over here is the same as the US too. I was thinking more of the food combination of "cheesy & chocolately" lol. Uhh, we have a ton of fast-food restaurants here but they're mostly located in the big city in the US I lived in an area where there was a huge line-up of just fast-food restaurants about a block up from my house near the highway so I definitely miss fast-food the most. I miss In-N-Out, McDonald's, Burger King, Jack-in-the-Box, Carl's Jr. all of it!!! When I was a kid I had a hard time eating but I liked fast food burgers & fries. :)
In terms of other foods I kinda miss: tortilla chips & salsa, Ranch dip, Flamin' Hot Chee-tos, and I've never tried 'em before but I see it on social media but Takis? Those look interesting.
Alright, I'm going to go heads down and grind for a few more minutes. My goal is to fully upgrade everything tonight, so wish me luck!
I'll try not to go ahead without you, Boo, but I'll level-up here in Zulan Blizzard until I find that the time it takes to gain a level isn't worth it anymore. I kinda like just mindlessly grinding, relaxing and thinking my thoughts. Lol I'll see you later, Boo! :D
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Alright, I'm back in the saddle!
Zulan Mountain
I meant to say this earlier, but the little "wok wok" attack sounds that the wyvern-like monsters makes are hilarious.
Who did you pair the Power Crest with? I put it on Jean with the Dream Crest, at least for now.
Also, I love using Ruby to melt the ice. Reminds me of all the ice melting in SSS. HOWEVER... I wish LUNAR did a little more environmental puzzles with things like this. Lufia is a series from this era that did environmental puzzles really, really well.
AVALAAAAANCHE!!!!
So glad Lucia came back and is starting to embrace her more human aspects... Awwww...
Back in the village, I'm actually glad to see the blizzard graphic has finally stopped. It's a bit easier on the eyes, haha.
As for Maria... I've been trying to pay more attention for themes and parallels, and I definitely see one here with Maria and her baby. It's obviously speaking to a very-silent Lucia. The mother-daughter parallels continue.
Alas, I'm logging off here for the night. Tomorrow it's onward! And I can't wait to see Nall again so very, very soon!
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Lol, Boo -- I spent like the last 3 days just going back-and-forth into the blizzard and leveling up haha. I'm at lv. 28 and about 18 hours into the game. :O
So now that you're back I went ahead and killed the Missing Link (I thought its name was kinda cleaver ;)) which was unsurprisingly very easy at the level that I'm at! Thank God though, usually this boss gives me trouble and I have to use up a Starlight.
The Zulan Mountains are pretty cool in that it gives you a bunch of new accessories to play-with and equip on your characters, like different rings and such. I opted to not even equip the Power Crest because even when paired with another crest like say the Dream Crest it decreases your power so I just left it in the item sack.
Yeah I loved the part when Lucia comes back after realizing that not saving the town was not the right thing to do. I also noticed that her A.I. gets a lot more aggressive in the Missing Link battle, - did you notice she would ALWAYS attack every turn with Napalm Shot or up someone's defense with Magic Barrier instead of defending or running around the map aimlessly? I guess that storypoint got Lucia's head thinking clearly again now that she realizes she has friends and she has to fight with them. I loved that she gets more aggressive.
I'm back in the town. And I'm gonna talk to everyone else a little later. I thought the Maria-amnesia thing was kinda of funny. lol
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Zulan Village
I talked to everyone in town and I noticed that the mayor's son-in-law (Maria's husband) is still missing... I can't remember if this is a plot point for down the road (I assume it is), but I climbed the mountain one last time just in case! He wasn't there... unless he was somehow the Missing Link!
Meribia
I was going to do some leveling at Taben's Peak, but alas... Onward to Meribia, where the nostalgia begins anew!
Interesting that one of the residents mentions that Master Mel was the first leader of Meribia.
I need more Silver to fully upgrade my gear *grumble, grumble*. This game is notoriously bad for it! But when I upgraded Hiro's armor, I realized that Jean can equip his Plate Mail! I didn't realize she could wear heavy armor. She'd been wearing dresses and clothing up to this point.
As for Ramus the XVII or XVIII, I love that he looks the same as his predecessor. Sad to see that the once-thriving shop (which was apparently a chain of stores) is now back down to this single, struggling location. And Ramus is in love with Lemina, how sweet. All you need is love, man.
I also picked up Jessica's Bromide! That makes three: Jessica, Lucia 1, and Jean 2. I wish these were numbered in sequential order.
I met with Lunn and got the additional backstory for Jean. I feel like out of all the characters, she's had the most solo backstory time thus far. Maybe it's just me, though, but it seems like it.
Off to Taben's Peak and to finally meet with Nall!
Taben's Peak
First off, if my memory serves me correctly, this location is moreso where the Grindery should have been. I was thinking it was parked near Meribia after it shot Vane out of the sky, and Taben's laboratory was SW of Meribia. According to this, the Grindery ruins (aka Mystic Ruins) is NE of Meribia and Taben's Peak quite a ways away, and Vane is E of here. Not that I care, just an observation.
EDIT: Okay, I just realized... I was combining Myght and Taben in my head. Taben was the evil inventor from the Vile Tribe, and this is definitely the ruins of the Grindery. Myght's ruins were still likely SW of Meribia. Which then begs the question... do the Mystics Ruins have a counterpart from SSSC, or was the garden and faeries moreso a nod to the garden at the Grindery in SSSC?
Also -- awesome finally seeing Nall again! Unlike Ghaleon's inclusion, Nall's addition to EBC not only makes sense, but they do a really good job with his character. I like that he's sort of a rogue-ish, orphan-hoarding, Lost Boy-esque hooligan. He actually even sort of looks like Rufio from Hook.
Anyway, I've spent some time grinding for that sweet, sweet Silver. I'll probably grind more tomorrow before reaching Nall and the orphans. Hope you're doing awesome, homie!
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I was gonna get a session in- finish up my session, but then I realized something, and I had to run back online to tell you! I misspoke earlier when I had mentioned that the Mystic Ruins were the remains of the Grindery, - it's so most obviously Taben's Peak not just from the name (so obvious.) but the location, -- it's in between Meribia and Vane where it shot it down in the distant past. I'm sorry homie for the confusion, I haven't played this game and analyzed it in forever, I'm getting forgetful in my old age! ...That kinda makes the Mystic Ruins even more mysterious... Why does Ghaleon choose to reside there of all the places he can make his home?
Ok, now that that's outta the way. I made it to Meribia and I have spoken to the townsfolk. I actually loved first strolling into Meribia in this game it takes me back to SSSC even the NPCs are recycled sprites. They've done away with Black Rose Street (dang!), the port (double-dang!) and the Seagull Tavern (triple-dipple dang!) so it's mainly now just the concentrated center of the once bustling seaport city in the last, the first game! Oh, vell! At least it takes me back at least a little bit.
I'm planning on going into the dojo (lol) and talking to Lunn who reminds me of either Revolver Ocelot or the Marlboro Man. And then I'll plan on traversing Taben's Peak to get to where you're at!
Ok, doing all that now.
Edit:
Note: Boo!! You can get 2 more bromides in Meribia! So there's a total of 3 you can get: one, from the minstrel in the tavern, second, from Ramus' grandpa if you just keep talking to him long enough he hands it over, and third, in the back of Ramus' store check the barrels and you'll find another Lemina one you might have to have taken the one from Ramus' grandpa first before this one appears I'm not sure. Don't forget these!!!
It's nice to see Lemina getting some backstory (compared to Jean's) even if it's just through pictures. Haha
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... I actually loved first strolling into Meribia in this game it takes me back to SSSC even the NPCs are recycled sprites. They've done away with Black Rose Street (dang!), the port (double-dang!) and the Seagull Tavern (triple-dipple dang!) so it's mainly now just the concentrated center of the once bustling seaport city in the last, the first game! Oh, vell! At least it takes me back at least a little bit.
This is always my reaction when I first enter Meribia. I've played SSSC probably six or seven times - maybe more - and the layout is ingrained within me. I always try to go to the left here thinking there's more town. Alas -- Meribia is much smaller than it once was, and as you said, much of the town is now gone.
... Lunn who reminds me of either Revolver Ocelot or the Marlboro Man. And then I'll plan on traversing Taben's Peak to get to where you're at!
Haha! I never thought about that. He sort of reminds me of Haschel from Legend of Dragoon. I'm not sure if you remember that PS1 jRPG. It was pretty good, although I've never finished it. I've tried three times and always loose steam with the grinding for the timed attack combos. It's a haul, and a lot of grinding can sometimes make me lose interest.
ESB is, to me, a bit too grind-y, but I have a deep love for the story and characters that keeps me engaged. I think I liked grinding more when I was younger, I just don't have much time for video games anymore so grinding to me takes me away from time I could be spending on story. We've already covered this, though, hahaha...
Note: Boo!! You can get 2 more bromides in Meribia! So there's a total of 3 you can get: one, from the minstrel in the tavern, second, from Ramus' grandpa if you just keep talking to him long enough he hands it over, and third, in the back of Ramus' store check the barrels and you'll find another Lemina one you might have to have taken the one from Ramus' grandpa first before this one appears I'm not sure. Don't forget these!!!
Dude, I am so glad you said something about these. I have a bromide guide saved but only check it every so often, and although I got Jessica's Bromide, I missed both Lemina ones. Whoops! I also thought it was interesting that the grandpa hints that there are other bromides hidden around Ramus' shop, which helps you find the ones in the barrels...
Today was another grinding day at Taben's Peak, btw. I am almost done acquiring enough Silver to fully upgrade.
Since the past few days have been slow sessions for me and mostly just grinding (I am really tempted to use a cheat to get quick Silver and EXP at this point), how's the week been treating you outside of our gaming sessions? Any exciting updates in life?
The weather here has been crazy. I live in the SE United States and we went from snow to having days in the 60s, both of which are abnormal for us during the winter. At least it's been good weather. I run a few miles every other day, so it's been nice for the cardio.
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Hi, Boo.
-I grinded so much in the Zulan Mountains that I had enough Silver to buy everything I needed in the weapon and armor shops in Meribia! Even had some Silver left over too as well!
-Yes, I'm familiar w/ Haschel. Tbh, I hate the older, black pony-tailed samurai looking guys in JRPGs. Cyan from FF6 and Haschel from the Legend of Dragoon I really hated their character art when I was a kid to the point where I didn't even want to play the game. To this day, I have LoD in my collection but I haven't gotten around to beating it. Maybe some day.
-Lunn's voice/accent is kinda cheesy: like whenever they have an Asian karate movie from the 80s all the people speak like that. :X
-I actually like grinding these days cause I have nothing but time in my schedule. I knew when I was a kid I wasn't gonna have any time to game when I got older because of either school/or, a job/kids/family so I sorta molded my lifes into something where I definitely had control of my hours and plenty of time to sit down and play specifically long RPGs. I know they're time-consuming so I sorta manipulated everything in my adult life so I can have time to game whenever I wanted to. :D
-I'm at the top of Taben's Peak I just have to talk to all the kids, everybody.
The week's been fine for me. I've been keeping a journal ever since December so I write everything down that I need to do and just general musings I have about lifes in general, lol. It's good therapy. I built a shelf for all my games/consoles so I have that set up in my living room right now. I'll try to snap a picture but I'm afraid it's gonna look huge and take up the whole page lol.
(https://i.imgur.com/nUjjH9J.png)
I've just been generally doing chores around the farmhouse (I'm meticulously clean like Ray Kroc) and just spending time with my dogs and stuff. Nothing TOO exciting, but gaming's always where it's at for me.
Yeah, I try to exercise everyday even if it's just an hour walk outside. Here in the Philippines it's always hot so days are in the 90sF everyday. I still haven't got used to it as an American. I've just been training the new maid we got in the house like teaching her what we eat during meals and how to work the laundry wash and stuff. Just same ole same ole stuff around here. In the evening times, when I'm pooped... I mostly just e-shop on Shopee (like our version of Amazon) app and just find little nick-knacks I need around the house and for myself/dogs. Like I've been buying self-care skincare routine stuff because I'm in my 30s now and I don't want my face to crack. I've been buying exercise equipment/yoga stuff. I've also been buying office/art supplies for my little office/desk area like artsy stuff like pens, markers and such.
Hope you're doing well, Boo! :D
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Dude, your retro gaming archive setup is awesome! I sold everything a few years back for cash and digitized my collection and only play via emulation nowadays. I do still have a PS3 that I picked up for cheap and a plethora of games, plus an old Xbox360 and those games. They're in storage bins in the attic since the emulation for those still aren't quite 100% solid yet. Eventually I'll need to sell those, too. I sometimes go through phases where I don't want to own a bunch of stuff, so I like to digitize what I can and sell off the rest. There are many days I regret it, haha.
As for the game...
Taben's Peak
I upgraded my gear and reached the top of the "mountain." I think I said it before, but I dig this interpretation of Nall. I wish he was a playable character. Maybe LUNAR 3 can have a playable dragon character whose magic was sealed away, essentially trapping them in human form and nerfing them. :D
I was soon trapped by the kiddos... How hilarious is it that Hiro, Lucia, and friends evaded the Dragonship Destiny, Leo, and Athena's Chosen but ended up captured by a bunch of wild children?!
I also find it hilarious the one kid doesn't trust Ronfar or his cooking. But everyone else seems to love Jean and her dancing, and Lemina was forced into scrubbing the floors. All while Hiro and Ruby got to sleep in and be lazy.
Lucia clearly recognizes Nall and knows what he really is. How does she know? When she was "created" by Althena I assume Quark was still the White Dragon and Nall hadn't been born yet. Later, the next morning, Lucia and Nall chat and he even knows who she is... how interesting.
One last thing before returning to Meribia to rescue the kids -- I find it sad for some reason thinking about the lone young adult woman at the playground. She has to leave just because she's grown. The Lost Boys / Hook analogy here has to be intentional, and I'm thinking there's probably some parallel here about the loss of innocence.
Meribia and Meribia Sewers
Finally -- a jRPG where the heroes have to go into the sewers, and characters actually mention how it smells!
I wonder if the layout is the same as it was in SSS or SSSC? I am pretty sure some of the enemies are the same!
I rescued the kids and defeated Master Lunn - I mean, the leader of the Shadow Dragon Cult.
I missed a chest so I had to back into the sewers to get it -- it was a Silk Dress for Jean.
Taben's Peak
I'm saving here and stopping for the night. I'll return to Nall tomorrow. :)
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Thanks dude for the compliments about the pic! I actually think my collection is pretty small compared to most, but I pretty much exclusively only go for RPGs. Sometimes I dabble in other stuff. I just wanted to not have my collection collecting dust up in the attic or somewhere else in the house I wanted to put it out for display!
I pretty much am still into physical copies. I have room in the house that I'm not making use of. I very rarely download games online, only if I'm randomly interested in something, I'll usually go for the physical game case! Something kinda empty to me about downloading a game and there's no disc or anything that goes with it... But I'm sure that'll change since downloads and streaming is the next generation thing!
I'll probably never get rid of my stuff... I'm kinda thinking about raising my kids with video games in the house so once I'm dead they can do what they want with it! lol
I'm about to talk to everyone in Taben's Peak and I'll try to make it past the Meribian Sewers to where you're at right now! I've been kinda busy testing out the PS4 Pro and had a couple games come in thru deliveries: Final Fantasy XV and Yakuza 0, so I've been playtesting them out. Really happy with the PS4 Pro purchase fwiw.
Super happy to be doing this side-project w/ you man, it kinda takes me back to my roots and what I really enjoyed growing up! I love going really slow and analyzing the little bits and parts of the game. What I noticed--Usually I just get through the game as fast as I can all the while talking to everybody and getting everything. Now that we're taking baby steps and I can spend a few days in a town and really analyze and take in what the townsfolk and NPCs are saying, and how I feel about their line?
All really good stuff, man. :D
Edit: Alright, I made it though the Meribian Sewers and I kicked the Masked Man's butt... whose voice is so obviously Lunn's. LOL I'll head to Taben's Peak and wait up for you!
Some random thoughts that popped into my mind while playing the last few sessions:
-I wonder if anyone's ever compared Jean to Kitana from Mortal Kombat with the fans?
-Lemina at Taben's Peak has me thinking she and I are a lot alike (she's always been my favorite character in L2: EBC) when she was complaining about having to be around kids. I sorta find little kids annoying too! :haha
-Lucia's A.I. is growing a lot more, she's using different attacks like Power Up!(sp?) and Lightning Bomb. She's definitely growing as a person.
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Hey, Boo!! I've been mostly just thinking hard and a lot about our analysis on LUNAR 2 and I have a few notes I've been ruminating about that've been stirring in my crazy head:
Notes:
-I think the main narrative is basically Lucia's Mission: She needs to see/meet with Althena. So they're all going to Pentagulia. Hiro and Ronfar seem to be penetrating this drive the most. Ronfar has business to take care of in the Holy City and he knows the way. Jean has her own thing going on, and Lemina wants the party to join the Magic Guild so she's heading for Vane. ...
-I think the next main major sub-plot is how annoying Leo is. Even all the way out in Meribia, the biggest city in the world, he's put up wanted posters trying to capture the group. He's relentless almost to the point of insanity, I personally feel like. I hate Leo so much. I want this point to be relevent to my real life but I know that has nothing to do with this game, but I've just come to learn I hate all the soldiers, guards what-have-you's that work for a "Empire" of some sort in JRPGs. I just find them and their mission so annoying. I love when the writers turn them into bumbling fools cause that's how I feel about them. FF6 does this too with the myriad of soldiers you can talk to in the game. Turns out they're just lazy, poor, literal bums that joined the force, hot-headed, dumb/stupid, grunt working work horses, just NPCs that don't add much story to the overall thing. Anyway, ... just how I feel about these types.
-Jean's whole sub-plot / backstory about the Masked Man. She seems to have her own thing-agenda going on away from the group. She's just tagging along to see if she can travel and find out what/who it is?
-Now that Nall's made an appearance Ruby's story gets a pump-pump with the whole Red Dragon thing.
So I initially don't like EBC much compared to SSSC cause there's so much stuff going on. But now that I'm taking baby-steps, I can piece everything together slowly as the game progresses.
Ok, that's all for tonight. :) Ciao!
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I actually think my collection is pretty small compared to most, but I pretty much exclusively only go for RPGs. Sometimes I dabble in other stuff. I just wanted to not have my collection collecting dust up in the attic or somewhere else in the house I wanted to put it out for display!
I feel you, and I think your collection looks awesome! I get jealous when I see those gaming rooms where every system has their own cubby and the games are super organized. Yours definitely looks awesome.
Lemina at Taben's Peak has me thinking she and I are a lot alike (she's always been my favorite character in L2: EBC) when she was complaining about having to be around kids. I sorta find little kids annoying too! :haha
Just you wait! You'll have kids eventually, and when they're your own... they're not so bad. My kids are practically my best friends! My daughter is 11 and is my mini-me, and we have a lot in common and very similar personalities. She just got her first boyfriend, which is freaking me out. She's not been into boys but she and this boy have admittedly liked each other all school year, so I have to give them credit.
Lucia's A.I. is growing a lot more, she's using different attacks like Power Up!(sp?) and Lightning Bomb. She's definitely growing as a person.
YES! I wasn't really paying attention until you called it out earlier, but I love the changes to her AI. I wonder if it's based on the party level or based on events? I assume events, but you're two or three levels higher than me.
I think the main narrative is basically Lucia's Mission: She needs to see/meet with Althena. So they're all going to Pentagulia. Hiro and Ronfar seem to be penetrating this drive the most. Ronfar has business to take care of in the Holy City and he knows the way. Jean has her own thing going on, and Lemina wants the party to join the Magic Guild so she's heading for Vane.
See, I find Lemina's motivations right now paper-thin. I think she's the weakest character story-wise by far, with Jean's story a close second. Like you said, Jean's story feels very separated. I still like her character a lot, it just seems odd. I keep thinking: why would Jean and Lemina have willingly joined Hiro and Lucia knowing that the two are wanted criminals?! I could understand trusting them if they have some prior relation, but they don't and Lemina joined almost immediately after joining them.
Now that Nall's made an appearance Ruby's story gets a pump-pump with the whole Red Dragon thing.
YES!
So I initially don't like EBC much compared to SSSC cause there's so much stuff going on. But now that I'm taking baby-steps, I can piece everything together slowly as the game progresses.
I like EBC a lot, but I do think SSSC has a stronger, more cohesive story. I also feel like more effort went into upgrading SSS into SSSC than EB into EBC. Regardless, it's sort of hard to capture the feeling of SSSC twice, so I can see how it's a nigh-impossible high bar to meet.
Anyway, I'm going to be playing some tonight, so I'll move onto the next events. Sorry I didn't get to play yesterday -- my kids are now in multiple sports and I'm literally running to events every single night. I'm curious if I can use my save on the PSP emulator and take the game on the go...?
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-Lol I'm just copying people I see online and how they display their games. I thought to myself hey maybe I should do that? It'd look nicer that's for sure, and I kinda wanna show off a little. Thanks again for the compliments, Boo.
-Oh yeah mostly I get annoyed with other peoples' kids, but I know when I have kids of mine own I will probably change. When I was a little kid I didn't like adults paying attention to me... so I sorta just ignore kids when I'm around them now. I think they're probably a lot smarter than they appear. :shrug:
-I'm assuming Lucia's A.I. is based on events that take place when she realizes certain things about lifes in general, that're for the positive and she gains a little bit of humanity. I kinda see her as just an empty shell and as she progresses thru the story she gets filled up with all sorts of human emotions like: friendship, caring, love, etc. And as she goes through this metamorphosis she's more likely to use/or she regains her powers, a bit more...
-I can see where you're coming from about Lemina. I stan her so I feel I have to defend her. I mean, Lemina's personality IS pretty paper-thin and one-dimensional in the first place! So does she really need a hard reason to go along w/ the party? lol I think she's just after money and that's more than enough reason to do anything, even IRL. I still find Jean's ambitions to be sorta lagging behind the rest... Her story is just so far away from everyone else's. She's just traveling with them basically. Either way, I like both the girls though.
-It's fine don't worry about the schedule Boo, just play at your own pace and I'll find a way to catch up/keep up/wait for you. I just found SSSC's story more simpler. It's just about love. I think I saw somewhere that Vic was hyping up that EBC has a ton more text compared to SSSC so maybe that's why I'm so reluctant to play it sometimes cause I'd have to read through everything.
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Taben's Peak
Back to Lucia! Funny how spending time with these kids really loosened her up and got her to identify more with humanity. In fact, I just realized how opposite Luna and Lucia are. Luna was Althena as a human incarnate and always had her humanity from birth, and then loses her humanity as the Dark Songstress; she only regains it due to Alex's love and sacrifice for her. Meanwhile, Lucia is Althena as a Goddess-child that slowly finds her humanity. Just an interesting parallel there. Two drastically different origins end up reversing.
I'm glad I exhausted the dialogue here, because I missed the Cute Ribbon in the play room the first time I was here!
One of the kids mentions that whenever she couldn't sleep at night, Lucia's singing would help her sleep. This alludes to the ransom and kidnapping having lasted multiple days. I always find it funny when jRPGs try to put timeframes on some of these events and they end up making zero sense.
Onward to Vane!
Vane
On the world map, it's kinda cool how you can see that Vane is on what was clearly an island has crashed down into the earth.
Transmission Spring
Don't miss Mia's bromide from the trident-carrying hombre! Unless I'm mistaken, her hair is more straight here in the bromide; I'm pretty sure her hair looks like like Lemina's hair, just black.
I love that we end up in the Cave of Trail, as seen in SSSC. This is the kind of easter egg / continuity I like!
If I'm not mistaken, there's only one treasure chest in the entire dungeon (at the topmost floor), and Lemina won't let me open it. What a fiend!
Vane
One thing I really love about this game is the regional foods. Every area seems to have one -- in Vane it's apparently jalafruit. Just some nice cultural color.
Reading some books in the library, a few things stick out...
-The era in which Dragonmaster Dyne was active was a time known as the Heresy War. I never knew that!
-The first Dragonmaster was named Louie, and his first step on Lunar is still out there... Which makes me wonder... Could the Blue Star be earth and this is all on our Moon in the far future...? Likely not, but one could wonder...
-Another book mentions again that Goddess is reborn into a human form multiple times, meaning Luna was not the only time Althena chose to become human. Does her soul become the goddess again when the human incarnate dies? I always find this bit of lore fascinating.
-Another bromide of Lemina hidden in one of the bookshelves!
-One note has information about the Vile Tribe with some scribbles from Phacia, which says that the Vile Tribe finally left the Frontier and lives amongst the humans. I don't remember this in the story here at all, and I know some members of the Vile Tribe looked human, while others looked imp/goblin-esque. Side note: Phacia was always my favorite waifu from SSSC.
I explored Vane entirely and exhausted all dialogue choices, and saved right in front of the Magic Guild. I'll head in and confront Borgen tomorrow.
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Hey, Boo I just made it to Vane officially (made it through the Cave of Trials) and I tried to talk to everyone and of course when you’re in Vane you have to read all the books in the Magic Library.
I have a few notes, I’ve been ruminating all night:
-It’s kinda sad the White Dragon Wings Nall gives you have obviously lost all its power in the previous game it allows you to teleport to any place you’ve visited previously and in this game it’s the same as Ronfar’s Escape Litany to take you out of a dungeon. I guess it speaks to there being no Goddess anymore and a lot of her magic in magical artifacts have weakened. Nall and the dragons still exist though?
-Is it just me or are we being bombarded with so many Lemina bromides? I love that we made it to Vane and her story and reasons for joining can be more fleshed out. I was thinking the reason the two girls joined is probably just superficial & shallow like it’s better to travel in a group? shrug
-Lucia’s A.I. is back to normal as she’s casting Plasma Rain again admittedly it’s not as powerful as it was in the Blue Spire. A lot of people notice when she casts her stat-ups she always casts it on mainly Hiro. Could that just be because she likes him?
-I’m kinda of out of it but I’ll re-read the books in Vane again tomorrow to see what I can come up with.
-Lemina has such a heinous insecurity about Vane and how its lost all its glory. I think it explains her being one-dimensionally greedy a lot to restore it to what it ONCE was.
:D Cheers!
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-It’s kinda sad the White Dragon Wings Nall gives you have obviously lost all its power in the previous game ... I guess it speaks to there being no Goddess anymore and a lot of her magic in magical artifacts have weakened. Nall and the dragons still exist though?
I had the same thought! We also already have Dragonfly Wings. Seems a bit duplicative considering we have both consumables and spells that do the same.
As for the story...
Vane
I completely forgot that Borgan was one of the Four Heroes. We've pretty much met all four, now -- Leo the White, Lunn the Blue, Mauri the Red, and now Borgan the Black. Although I can't remember if Mauri has been outright stated as the warrior for the Red Dragon or not, although I think one random NPC did list the Four Heroes by name.
I find it funny that Lemina's mother Miria says that Lemina and Borgan are a lot of like, and Lemina muses on whether or not Borgan has brainwashed her mother (ahem, ahem, Mia her mother -- or I guess it wasn't really brainwashing rather than a shape-shifting imposter).
I don't lol often, but I lol'd at Ronfar when they got to the roof and he mentioned giving Lemina a pep-talk, but then promptly stated that everyone was afraid of Lemina. Haha! And then Lemina tells Hiro that his pep-talk is shite.
With Lemina's mothers kidnapping, at least we finally have motivation for Lemina and her role in this journey.
I left Vane and wandered to the forest with all the bugs (a Google search tells me it's called Sluice Forest), and they absolutely wiped my party. I don't know if I wasn't supposed to come here yet or if I am just somehow extremely under-leveled, but I hadn't saved at all during this session, so I'm outta luck and that's my demoralizing session of the day. I may play later tonight to get caught back up.
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Hey, Boo! I had some notes I was ruminating about as I was exercising this afternoon:
-This's kinda going back to Taben's Peak but it wouldn't be a JRPG if the main character wasn't thrown in jail lol (I'm sure you can relate as that was my favorite moment in Chrono Trigger). I think it's so funny whenever you somehow wind up behind closed bars. It just always happens in JRPGs. lol :p
-I was thinking about Lucia's A.I. and how being around the children in Taben's Peak really brought back her almost-full powers, as afterwards she starts casting Plasma Rain like she did in the Blue Spire. She learned about singing, and as we all know the Goddess Althena loves to sing. So I think Taben's Peak/the children was a really significant moment for Lucia's growth, and learning about human nature and how humans behave. She definitely becomes a beneficial ally now in battle as she constantly attacks now or casts stat-ups. She's no longer just running away or running around the map aimlessly.
Also: This's kinda of a bonus but as you know I always pick Christmas/Dec 25th as my start-date whenever I re-play LUNAR/any WD game. I was reminded of it but I usually game until around this time and Chinese/Lunar New Year is around this time of the year so I thought I'd gather all my Lunar collectibles in celebration for the Year of the Rabbit!
(https://i.imgur.com/x4jm7uA.png)
Gong Hay Fat Choy!
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Fuck this game. In the nicest way possible. :D
I'm caught back up. I think I was just tired yesterday and tried sneaking in a gaming session while knowing I was on-call for work and family responsibilities. Shame on me! Hahaha. Luckily I realized that I had a save state and wasn't as far back as the save file, so I'm not nearly as bad off as I thought I was.
Sluice Forest
I fought through Sluice Forest and then camped out. What a fun team moment; I savor these little quiet character moments. If you notice, Ronfar is sleeping at the trail entrance to the screen, indicating what I interpreted to be a bit of a protector role; I love it...
...Too bad it was slightly broken by the skinny-dipping Lucia and peeping pervert Hiro. C'mon man, I thought we grew past this, Hiro! At least she screamed and demonstrated some self-awareness this time around. Also -- I love that she was singing the weird little orphanage song from Taben's Peak.
I high-tailed it to Azado, upgraded my gear (and had enough Silver, so no grinding necessary)! I also forgot to equip the Thieve's Staff on Lemina, so that went on her, too. I didn't talk to any NPCs, so when I play tomorrow I'll have to spend some time talking to the NPCs and getting to know this port town.
Regarding comments from your last post...
She learned about singing, and as we all know the Goddess Althena loves to sing. So I think Taben's Peak/the children was a really significant moment for Lucia's growth, and learning about human nature and how humans behave.
This is a really, really good call-out. I never even thought about the "magic of singing" parallel to Luna and Althena. Even when ruminating over these connections, that one flew over my head. I do like the magical element of singing and how it is in relation to Althena's magic. Have they ever explained that? Like has it ever been outright stated that singing has a magical property to it? I did halfway expect Lucia to start singing Luna's song --
https://youtu.be/H1sUuCGyMzo?t=193
[Lucia] definitely becomes a beneficial ally now in battle as she constantly attacks now or casts stat-ups. She's no longer just running away or running around the map aimlessly.
Yeah, definitely. Her spell repertoire is growing!
Also: This's kinda of a bonus but as you know I always pick Christmas/Dec 25th as my start-date whenever I re-play LUNAR/any WD game. I was reminded of it but I usually game until around this time and Chinese/Lunar New Year is around this time of the year so I thought I'd gather all my Lunar collectibles in celebration for the Year of the Rabbit!
Dude, your collection is awesome! That's even more than I expected! What is the red-covered book in the lower middle? Is it the player's guide for the original Sega Saturn version? I remember hearing about a manga, and I'd REALLY like to track down a translation and give it a read.
Sorry again if this playthrough is taking far too long. I know we're about a month in and still on the first disc (yikes!). Hopefully you're having as much as you say you are, haha...
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Hey, Boo!!
So, I’m in the Sluice Forest right now grinding because I don’t have enough Silver to buy all of the weapons in Vane. Thank goodness the monsters in the forest shell out a lot of Silver.
*Yes, singing and song have magical attributes tied to it in the world of LUNAR, as the Goddess herself loves to sing and hear her children’s songs. Remember how all of Luna’s magic were songs or song-related? And in SSSC it took singing to make the entrance to the Blue Dragon Shrine appear. They flat-out stated in the Making of disc that song has magic attached to it.
*The red book is the Japanese artbook for Silver Star Story I bought it way back in 1999 on AOL. It’s really nice to have. There’s an Eternal Blue artbook out there too that I wanna get still that’s supposed to be even better.
*Don’t worry about me I’m having tons of fun. I think it’s kind of fun how each of us has busy days / days where we can really get a good session in. haha :D
So I’m really happy Lemina’s reason(s) for tagging-along have been fleshed out a little bit. I was gonna say she’s my favorite character cause a) she’s a blonde, and b) her one-liners about making fun of Borgan make me laugh my sides hurt. I think her greed is explained in that her sole mission is to revive the Magic Guild and she’s the only one that cares about Vane and its legacy anymore. Plus I think she’s such a great ally in battle cause her magic can easily help clear out enemy hordes.
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*Yes, singing and song have magical attributes tied to it in the world of LUNAR, as the Goddess herself loves to sing and hear her children’s songs. Remember how all of Luna’s magic were songs or song-related? And in SSSC it took singing to make the entrance to the Blue Dragon Shrine appear. They flat-out stated in the Making of disc that song has magic attached to it.
Maybe as a grand finale once we finish EBC we can watch the making of discs. I am pretty sure that EBC had them, but I've never watched them - only the SSSC ones.
So I’m really happy Lemina’s reason(s) for tagging-along have been fleshed out a little bit. I was gonna say she’s my favorite character cause a) she’s a blonde, and b) her one-liners about making fun of Borgan make me laugh my sides hurt. I think her greed is explained in that her sole mission is to revive the Magic Guild and she’s the only one that cares about Vane and its legacy anymore. Plus I think she’s such a great ally in battle cause her magic can easily help clear out enemy hordes.
Yeah, I love her. She has the confidence of Nash, the greed of Ramus, and the gusto of Jessica. She's like a "best of" character and I love her. She's probably my favorite ESB character next to Nall and Ronfar, and even then it's a toss up.
Anyway, tonight is a super short session for me. I didn't get home until 9:00pm and then had to tuck the kids in bed, take care of the animals (in the dark), and check work email about a critical issue.
I just went back to the Sluice Forest and did some leveling. Like you mentioned, the silver-per-battle is great here. Plus, now that I'm focused and upgraded, the battles here aren't a challenge. I think the first time I came here I wasn't paying attention and I didn't cure poison quick enough, and when I used spells I chose ones that weren't elemental weaknesses (I wasn't paying attention to what color it was showing when picking the enemies to attack). I dunno, let's chalk it up to me having an off day or something.
Tonight should be a nice, long quality session. I get to work from home Friday so I can stay up a bit later tomorrow night.
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Hey, Boo!! I've been busy running around these past few days, so I'm happy we're actually taking it super slow. I'm still in the Sluice Forest I'm gonna see the scene with Lucia and perverted Hiro then I'm gonna make my way to Azado. by what you said I'm probably gonna have to go back to the Sluice Forest to grind for Silver to get all the equipment upgrades but I'll probably talk to the townspeople in between battle.
Oh, I usually watch the Making of disc as a bonus / treat whenever I finish a playthrough anyway. O-M-G that you haven't watched the EBC Making of disc you're in for a treat!!!
I actually dunno why I like Lemina, it's been so long ago that I first played and had my favorite characters that I dunno where the love stemmed from. I think it's just because I liked Mia so much in the first game SSSC that it trickled down to her ancestor fellow Ausa gal Lemina. :shrug: I've always liked all the Ausa women cause they always have a variation of the name -ia. lol Lemia, Mia, Miria, Lemina. :p
I've just been running around buying things for the farmhouse that I need like: kitchen spray to get all the grease/oil splatter near the stoves, random cleaning supplies like just dustrags and things to wipe things off with, I also bought some groceries because I'm trying to be a chef in the kitchen / make "healthy" foods since I'm in the middle of a weightloss journey. I've also been doing a lot of e-shopping so I have to wait around for deliveries all day and such. Just in general trying to keep myself busy with a lot of sweeping and cleaning the bathroom everyday, we have a lot of dust here on the farm cause Zambales is like really dry and hot (not like desert though). Dust gets in the house everyday and if I don't clean it off the floors I cough a lot when I'm trying to go to sleep in bed at night. I'm also taking care of my dogs (not that that's really all that important) just buying them stuff they need and such. I try not to get too emotionally attached to my animals after the trauma of losing my first dog but I can't help it and I'm always looking for new treats, doggy toys, blankets & beds that'll make them feel more comfortable in the place. I bought some mouthwash too.
Lol I could go on and on but don't worry about me and our playthrough I'm having a great time and a blast just getting to really analyze the game that much more deeply. Being stuck in a town for days really helps me if I want to go back and re-read everyone's lines again that I might've not understood the first time though? Anyway, yeah, lol...
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Hey homie! I just finished my short gaming session and I took it slow again today and mainly just explored Azado. I haven't moved onto the next major event yet and figured I'd wait for you before I proceed. No pressure on the time front.
Oh, I usually watch the Making of disc as a bonus / treat whenever I finish a playthrough anyway. O-M-G that you haven't watched the EBC Making of disc you're in for a treat!!!
...I'm pretty sure I've only watched the SSSC Making Of disc once or twice, so I really need to watch that one again... but yeah, I have NEVER seen the one for ESB. I'm pumped to watch it, although I'll probably have to find a copy on YouTube. I don't think I ever scanned the discs when I digitized my archive.
I've just been running around buying things for the farmhouse that I need like: kitchen spray to get all the grease/oil splatter near the stoves, random cleaning supplies like just dustrags and things to wipe things off with, I also bought some groceries because I'm trying to be a chef in the kitchen / make "healthy" foods since I'm in the middle of a weightloss journey.
You're killing it, dude! Keep it up! I find when I have the little things in my life taken care, my mental state is just so much more at peace. When the house is a wreck and I'm eating horrible and not getting much exercise, I look and feel horrible. I'm down about 30 pounds from this time last year and have been doing cardio runs and some weights about every other day, and every aspect of my self is improved: my mental state is more balanced, my immune system is much better, and overall I feel much healthier. Keep it up, man!
I try not to get too emotionally attached to my animals after the trauma of losing my first dog but I can't help it and I'm always looking for new treats, doggy toys, blankets & beds that'll make them feel more comfortable in the place. I bought some mouthwash too.
I'm the same way, man. I hate owning animals because I get attached. I feel like if I have the responsibility of owning a pet (usually not my choice because of my wife and kids), I have to do the responsible thing and give them a quality life experience.
I even feel that way about my chickens! I wouldn't want to eat them (although when I bought them that was certainly the intent, once they stopped laying), and I oddly love them. I call them 'my girls' and when I go outside they all run to me. If you've ever seen a chicken run, it's a hilarious sight. We don't cuddle, but they follow me around the yard and I hand feed them treats and snacks and stuff. A few of them I will pick up and pet. One of them had cancer and died last summer and I even got choked up and cried a little.
Alright brother, I'm out. I'll catch you tomorrow!
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Hello Boo, I was hoping we'd be able to take it slow lol. I'm right where you are I've talked to everyone in Azado and I just haven't moved the story along. I think we should both each just finished this small little part in Azado as I'm pretty sure it's the last town you visit before Disc 1 ends. We should just both move forward... I still have to do a little grinding in the Sluice Forest for equips but I should just be able to get it done tonight and tomorrow I'll hurry the story along. C:
-Yep, I just got two brand new maids to help do housework / housestaff so they're helping me a bunch with taking the load off my shoulders when it comes to cleaning the house. They cleaned the kitchen area really well today and I asked if they could do my bedroom tmmr. lol. I'm very meticulously clean they pretty much do the brunt of the cleaning and I come in after with a toothbrush and clean the corners and stuff. I was woken up early by my dog this morning so I've been up for hours and but I'm kinda tired right now. As we speak I still have to do a bit of organizing and such. I might even clean my bathroom at around midnight tonight. LOL
- Yeah. Exercise. I try to just do something everyday but everyday I have to go for an hour walk to clear my head of garbage and nonsense thoughts, I also do a bit of stretching (for flexibility and mobility) and yoga because long, sedentary hours in front of the console / T.V. / computer really makes me feel stiff to the bone. I don't kill myself w/ exercise but if I'm sitting for like 1-2hrs. I try to get up and out of the house and do something... lol. The word sedentary kills me these days. :D
Oh, I just love my dogs regardless. I try to spoil them cause they're the king and queen of the house...
Well, my farm is actually more of a chicken farm than anything we raise a lot of chickens from egg to adult / and we make use of both the females and the males. In the Philippines, cockfighting is a national sport much like boxing so the males don't get wasted (some ppl think they're useless?) a lot of dudes go to arenas and watch them fight. I think it's illegal in the U.S. though? I was gon take pictures today but forgot. I'll post it tmmr.
I'm used to seeing the chickens get slaughtered so no worries man. I get a little choked up too when it comes to any animal.
Ok, so I'm gonna grind in the forest to get Azado equips tonight. Tomorrow, I'll just cont. the story. Nice meeting up with you again brother! C:
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Your wish is granted and I'm going slow tonight, hahaha...
I thought I'd have a long free night to play a lot of games, but tonight ended up being a slumber party for my daughter and her friends, so I'm on fun dad duty. I'll have to move forward in the story tomorrow -- tonight I just went back to Sluice Forest and grinded a little. Like you said, the Silver is excellent in these battles. Even though I'm good on gear, I'll have more Silver for the next town and set up upgrades.
Funny that the town has a weapon named specifically for Jean! Is there a dark conspiracy afoot...?
Well, my farm is actually more of a chicken farm than anything we raise a lot of chickens from egg to adult / and we make use of both the females and the males.
I grew up thinking chickens were really stupid. Even though they're not very smart, I've definitely been surprised by their intelligence and unique personalities. Even in the same species, I've seen unique personalities. We have three types: brahma, ameraucana, and wyendotte. We're talking about getting cinnamin queens in the spring. Although with the egg prices here in the states right now (prices have doubled recently - a dozen eggs is pushing $7 USD at the moment), a lot of people are trying to buy chicks. Little do they know it will take 6 months or more to start getting eggs. Hahaha!
In the Philippines, cockfighting is a national sport much like boxing so the males don't get wasted (some ppl think they're useless?) a lot of dudes go to arenas and watch them fight. I think it's illegal in the U.S. though?
I had neighbors that would raise roosters just for cockfighting. They lived in little lean-to structures and had little leashes attached to their feet so they couldn't get to each other. It definitely happens here (especially in rural areas), but like you said, it's illegal.
Anyway, I'm going back into dad mode. I'll pick the game up tomorrow afternoon and it's time to finally wrap up disc 1!
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Hey, Boo. I really like it when we take it slow. lol I didn't realize doing all the chores in the household takes me so much time and effort. I like it when we spend a few days grinding in one spot. lol So anyways, I was thinking about moving the story along for myself tonight though since I just have time tonight. I won't trudge too far ahead I'll probably just finish the event in Azado and stop.
Yeah as for me it's just your typical day just sweeping up the farmhouse and I bought these little baskets to put all of my nick-knacks in and just junk and stuff that's scattered everywhere so I'm definitely doing a little organizing too on-the-side. I bought Ziplock freezer / storage baggies to put my chargers in and video game wires and such that I've just accumulated over time so I'm definitely going-overboard when it comes to the organization hehe. (Maybe not?) I'm just in this super cleanly mode, as-of-late.
Shoot. I forgot to take pictures of the chickens on the chicken farm while there was light out today. I'll definitely do it tomorrow so you can see. Yeah I don't spend too much time with the chickens on my own we hire people to do all that stuff for us, - the family, so but I go down there and check them out sometimes. At first, I couldn't really sleep since the roosters crow in the morning so they'd wake me up at around 5 o'clock in the wee morning but it's so LOUD here all the time w/ the chickens and I don't even notice them anymore lol. I only notice when I'm taking videos and all I hear are the chickens in the background clucking and stuff! :haha:
No I definitely think they're resourceful animals. One of my dreams is to turn this farmland into a self-sufficicent resource and beginning with starting chickens was definitely the way to go. You can start off small and they reproduce so fast and lay so many eggs. We actually have incubators so we incubate our own eggs, and after awhile (a couple of weeks?) they hatch and turn into baby chicks. We separate the hens (so they can lay) from the males, and the guys on the farm use the male ones for cockfighting so they gamble sometimes (mostly for fun/nothing too serious) and can make some money for themselfs. Obviously we eat the chickens too sometimes if we're feeling like it. The wild chickens do have a different taste from the store-bought, and I've noticed the fresh eggs do have a slightly rich or like gamier taste to them for-sure.
A lot of old American guys (mostly Southerners?) come here just cause they like cockfighting so much. They're pretty good at it too.
Ok, anyways,--so the plan is for me to just finish the events in Azado tonight cause I'm free and I'll just stop right there so as not to go too far ahead of ya. I'll see you around, Holmes.
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Oh, also I noticed something.
Notes: I really like the storyline events in Azado a lot. Like the general creep factor they have going on in the 'hood. I kinda relate to this in a way. Like a lot of the townsfolk say they feel like they're being watched, and it's hard to do anything anymore. I so, so, so felt that way back in America before I left. I lived in Daly City a little sub-urb just outside of San Francisco and I noticed after I turned 18 and became an adult, started going to college and getting a job I started to feel creeped out more often than not and that I was being watched more close by the neighbors and stuff!!? Probably because they knew I wasn't a child anymore and they could get me. I just felt like there were narcs and snitches in the neighborhood always spying on me, I couldn't take it anymore. I wonder if the writers of LUNAR kinda took real life American culture into account when creating scenarios for each town and such to differentiate them from one another? (Plus they're from California.) I mean I think we all know about nasty neighbors, snitches-in the neighborhood and nosey behavior... Anyway. I love Azado cause it makes me feel like I'm not crazy for feeling that way once upon a time.
Have a good one Boo!!! :D
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Hey, Boo!!
Quick update: So I just beat the boss at Azado and I stopped for right now. I think it's pretty cool that Leo joins you for this portion of the game like I don't hate him as much anymore lol. Like there IS logic and reason in him, and he's not just blind to the truth all the time. So I like that- that he's willing to change. I think it's pretty badass he fights with you and he hits even harder than Hiro. I'm at lv 32 right now btw. I was gonna say maybe take a few Star Lights with you cause you might need them I hate that they're 2,000 Silver a pop though. :p The boss was more of a pushover than I remembered all the random encounters to get to him were more annoying.
I think it's an inside-joke that whenever the girls aren't in the party you have to fight Nipple Yankers. It happened in SSSC too when it was just the guys in the Black Dragon Fortress.
Ok,-so I'm stopping for right now but for sure I'm gonna talk to all the townspeople again tomorrow morning. Ciao!
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One of my dreams is to turn this farmland into a self-sufficicent resource and beginning with starting chickens was definitely the way to go.
I have similar dreams. I'd even like to get off the public water/electrical grid one day, but I think that's a long shot. The US makes it incredibly difficult to do so, especially with water laws. As for the chickens, we started with 10 and now only have 6. We've lost 4 over the past few years to animals and one to cancer, and we're looking to buy some more in the spring -- assuming they're affordable and available!
Obviously we eat the chickens too sometimes if we're feeling like it. The wild chickens do have a different taste from the store-bought, and I've noticed the fresh eggs do have a slightly rich or like gamier taste to them for-sure.
Ours are multi-purpose chickens (eggs and meat) but we've decided not to eat ours -- at least not any time soon. My kids love them too much. But we have bought from local farmers already processed (but fresh) chickens and they definitely have a slightly more robust flavor. The eggs are also much brighter than store bought / industrial laying chicken eggs.
Now onto the game!
Azado
Yeah, this is sort of a frustrating town. Not only the religious hypocrisy of the Chosen, but the extreme religious indoctrination and subjugation is just outright toxic. I'm always sort of sensitive to these kind of stories and situations, as my upbringing was very sheltered and not far off from this. But we've already talked about that, haha...
I laugh that the one blonde lad (Porom, former High Priest Balse's son) stands in front of her door to guard against thieves (and apparently jRPG protagonists). I've thought about one day doing a hardcore playthrough of an RPG and not opening treasures that clearly belong to others, haha... A nice little RP addition. The only game I've thus far been able to do that with has been Skyrim, but that game is made for such RP aspects.
A few observations:
- I also noticed that one guy refers to the Dragonmaster as the DragonMaster -- have I been articulating this wrong all this time?!?!
- This game is quintessential 1990's in that every calls each other "retard." Back then it was common but now it's definitely a faux-pax here, and people would be offended. Like we've said, Working Designs always did an excellent job of translating the zeitgeist and language of the time. Hard to believe this game came out a quarter of a century ago, but that's definitely one of the things helping the game show its age.
- The first time I played this game I remember I was about to board the ship when I realized it looked identical to the Dragonship Destiny, so I saw that coming and was screaming internally - nooooo!
- After the confrontation aboard the ship, I noticed the pillars around time have changed -- the flames now have evil faces in them! This is when the fire first starts and during the cutscene before the town is engulfed by the evil flames.
Moving on with the story...
- I'm glad we're starting to dig into the dragon mythology a little here, starting with the red dragon fire and Mauri.
- When Leo joined the party I looked at his inventory... And he's equipped with Dyne's Sword!
- Nice lore consistency that Ronfar could use healing magic on Balse, at least enough to stabilize him.
- Some of the battle dialogue in this game is hilarious -- Leo says, "Taste my refreshment!" with one of his attacks. It's so stupid and I love it. I LOVE THIS GAME!.
Dragonship Destiny
Man, the Althena's Chosen are asshats. Even thought Leo is starting to question his orders, they mostly seem pretty steadfast and refuse to budge. One even talks of slitting Lucia's throat!
Anyway, after talking to Lucia on the deck, I'm surprised Ruby was so light on Hiro. Normally she'd be grilling him after having seen Lucia fleeing in tears!
That all being out of the way... we now have THE END OF DISC 1!!! We did it!
Pentagulia
I've arrived in Pentagulia, met with (Dragonmaster!) Ghaleon, and said goodbye to all my friends... Ronfar is off to salvage his relationship with Mauri, Lemina is off to "save" her mother from Borgan, and Jean is off to find Lunn... I've saved my game.
This is where I stop for the evening. Woohoo!
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Whoo!! We made it to the end of disc 1. Tbh, disc 2 is where the real fun begins!! :D
So I don't have much commentary tonight. It's pretty cold here weirdly. Either that, or the house is just really really clean. I dunno I'm just happy to get out of the US. lol To put it bluntly. :p To be honest, every day I think about how blessed I am to be here. (Philippines) I went through some personal stuff right-before I left the US, and I'm just happy a) that I left, and b) that I'm here in my home-country. Tbh Boo, I have this quasi-fantasy of seeing life as an RPG. hahaha Like for example, growing up as a commoner-or middle income, I think that's so RPG and default, in-general, standard, the norm etc. what have you. You have access to all you need and no complaints. Plus growing up in an Asian household, I think that's pretty JRPG not-to-burst-anyone's-bubble. A lot of gamers might wonder why I re-play so many of my favorite RPGs and I just think I get so much more out of it, as an Asian kid, that no one else can even relate to. I relate to a lot of the things I see like chopsticks or tea cups & kettles in the various houses, furniture being very low to the floor like we talked about earlier like these little nuances you wouldn't understand if you weren't Japanese/or some other Asian growing up in the US.
Flags, meeting important people in your life, and making big decisions sometimes that'll impact the rest of your life (or game) forever. I think I'm a pretty strategic guy (I love Survivor, the T.V. show) and I just feel good about the decision I made to leave America and come back home.
Sometimes I have this fantasy-feeling that the big "Empire" the games we play always have is none-other-than America. The Solaris city floating in the heavens in the sky that everyone in the world wants to go to one day is none other than America. The soldiers, guards, grunt work horses scattered all around the world in every town who do they work for? America. Anyway just some late-night musings from a tired John.
I think the freedom America always talks about is overrated. Having lived there my whole life. It's not all it's cracked up to be. The food's nasty. I mean, come on McDonald's? I'm sure it was cultural in its heydey but it's a joke now.
Anyway. Yeah I love the chickens on the farm and the animals. I'm in love with my two dogs right now, Karla and Jepp, and I just "take care" of them everyday. Not a HUGE responsibility but I like it. I live by myself and it's fun getting to know the people / "housestaff" that work for me. I'm just glad to be around IRL people (not 'SO,' or family) everyday as a sense of normalcy in our now tech-savvy world. I love that we're posting on a messageboard right now, doing it oldschool style, I've always loved MBs.
The game is pretty fun. I think you're enjoying it more than I am, Boo!! :p I have fun taking it reeeally slow and reading each line carefully, and just analyzing. I like to take everything I learn from RPGs and apply it to my life in someway.
In case anyone was interested most of the stuff I think about when playing are like a higher philosophy type stuff. If anything, the one thing I think most people will have a problem about EBC is the religiousness of it. I thought Americans were kinda cultish about religion but Filipinos definitely has America beat in terms of spiritual strength, even above the numbers. I've never known this about my own country but your average Filipino probably has 10x more spiritual power than any active Christian from the US. There's spirit in the land here and I never felt that presence in the US amidst the barren buildings and cement streets. America felt very empty to me in terms of spirituality. I never felt anything there. Just emptiness. Nowhere.
These're most of my musings when I'm playing the game. I think Working Designs tries to "Americanize" the game as much as they can which I like a LOT. I LIKE, LOVE America. Maybe I'm a bit cynical? I think WD put a lot of effort into this game so it's only fair I come up with a lot of thoughts to post about it. Sometimes when people beat one RPG, and move onto the next without coming up with any content of their own to share it's like do you have a brain of your own in there?
Sorry this's one of my lazy posts as I'm feeling super cold tonight. I'm looking forward to playing more tomorrow. Sometimes I think each RPG game is just commentary of society in that year in the US. :shrug: Like how you mentioned we would all say retarded in High School. When I found out we can't say it anymore I was like, "That's so retarded." I have so many thoughts about how we used to play this game in HS... woo woo woo. America's very into "High School culture" I've come to find out from movies in the 90s, to T.V. shows, to pop love songs. I think that's something ALL of us can relate to since we all went there... hopefully graduated? I love social-ness and reading a bunch of lines from games taught me like well how to speak English. It really helped me a lot socially just READING A WHOLE BUNCH CRAP CRAMMING. I love to do reading. RPGs also gave me a love for writing. I. just. like. text. Then computers... then Internet.
I think there's so much you can take from RPGs with a looot of text. A lot of stuff to think about. I hope you're enjoying the game Boo! We're 1/3 in. :D I can't wait to do the same thing with Chrono Trigger (or whatever game) with you next! Hope you're having a BALL!
(One of my 'Lazy Posts.')
Summary: "After leaving the US and now being on the outside looking in, I've come to find out America has a huge impact on the world with its media: shows, music, video games."
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So... I haven't played tonight. If I get some more time, I will, but I've ended up spending all my evening WRITING out my ideas for the hypothetical LUNAR game. Over the past few days a ton of ideas have been hitting me and it got to the point that I had to write it all out before I forgot them. Not that it would do any good, but it does make for a fun writing exercise. I love writing, so it's a win-win.
This happens sometimes when I play a game -- I write up a hypothetical sequel that I'd like to play, even thought it's ultimately futile.
I know I said I'd wait until we're done before we throw out potential sequel ideas, but my concept would be a standalone sequel that takes place between Silver Star Story Complete and Eternal Blue Complete and would tie much more into the mythos of the four dragons. Nall would be the only returning character, would be playable in the game this time around, and the game's main villains would be the Five Princes of the Dark Star as seen in the prologue of Silver Star Harmony (I'm not sure if they're referenced in any other material). That's all I'll say for now. My document is at about 1500 words, so I've got the first act and most of the characters ironed out.
Speaking of Silver Star Harmony, the game may be ported and released on Switch in March of this year. That's on the LUNAR wiki but I can't seem to find legit confirmation of it anywhere. If true, I'll definitely buy it --
-- I actually really like the Silver Star Harmony version; I know it's a bit polarizing because everyone views SSSC as the ultimate version of the game, but I still really like it. Much of the voice acting is better once you can get past the fact that some of the characters sound drastically different (ie Ghaleon, Nall, Ramus). I wouldn't call it superior to Silver Star Story Complete (which is my ultimate version), but it's interchangeable. Granted, I've only played it once back in 2010 when it was first released, but my experiences with it were nevertheless very positive.
If it does release in March, I'm not gonna lie, I definitely will consider playing it next. :D
Anyway --
... growing up in an Asian household, I think that's pretty JRPG not-to-burst-anyone's-bubble. A lot of gamers might wonder why I re-play so many of my favorite RPGs and I just think I get so much more out of it, as an Asian kid, that no one else can even relate to. I relate to a lot of the things I see like chopsticks or tea cups & kettles in the various houses, furniture being very low to the floor like we talked about earlier like these little nuances you wouldn't understand if you weren't Japanese/or some other Asian growing up in the US.
I can see how this would be the case, though. Most jRPG are made by Asian developers and thus have an Asian cultural lens, compared to say, western RPGs like Gothic, The Witcher, Fallout, Skyrim, etc. Definitely very different not just in gameplay, but in tone and culture. I'm obviously your typical anglo male descended from English and Scottish settlers, but I can see how the experience would be a different experience for you rather than me.
I often wish life was like an RPG. I wish my life served a greater purpose, doing good in the face of absolute evil and destruction, and I could come out the other side with friends and allies all together working to save the world and find a purpose. Sometimes I think about how sad RPG protagonists must be once their mission is complete and they return to simple life -- like, that has to be a hard adjustment for, say, Alex Noa to return to life at Burg after having seen the entire world, to see his god(dess), and to have become what is essentially the most powerful warrior in the world as the dragonmaster. Simple village life on a small island would have to be an adjustment after all that!
The only story I've really seen that adequately deals with this idea is The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. They don't dwell on it, but they do talk about the adjustment of Bilbo and Frodo after their adventures. I get the impression that Bilbo, in particular, struggled greatly in his return to a non-adventuring lifestyle.
Speaking of this in the real world, I wonder if this is what it's like for some soldiers to return to civilian life? Especially after, say, World War II.
Sometimes I have this fantasy-feeling that the big "Empire" the games we play always have is none-other-than America. The Solaris city floating in the heavens in the sky that everyone in the world wants to go to one day is none other than America. The soldiers, guards, grunt work horses scattered all around the world in every town who do they work for? America.
Naw man, I feel the same. America is certainly polarizing, and I'm apt to criticize the things I don't like about it. I won't bore you or anyone else reading this with my own political discourse what I do and don't like about America, but I do feel like the so much of the "evil empire" trope is a reflection of Western culture as a whole: the UK and the US, in particular. A few examples off the top of my head: Shinra, the Gestahl Empire, you name it.
I love that we're posting on a messageboard right now, doing it oldschool style, I've always loved MBs.
Me too, dude! Try as I might, I can't get into Discord and the more "chat room" elements of modern social media. Having a live chat option is certainly nice, but I miss the message boards and forum-style web pages of old. You can't easily build relationships with people on Discord like you can on a forum, or at least that's my experience. Maybe I'm just old and out of touch, hahaha!
In case anyone was interested most of the stuff I think about when playing are like a higher philosophy type stuff. If anything, the one thing I think most people will have a problem about EBC is the religiousness of it. I thought Americans were kinda cultish about religion but Filipinos definitely has America beat in terms of spiritual strength, even above the numbers. I've never known this about my own country but your average Filipino probably has 10x more spiritual power than any active Christian from the US. There's spirit in the land here and I never felt that presence in the US amidst the barren buildings and cement streets. America felt very empty to me in terms of spirituality. I never felt anything there. Just emptiness. Nowhere.
I get this. I traveled to Japan for three weeks a few years back. I am not a very religious man at this point in my life, but I follow Christian morality by and large. I do still consider myself spiritual. Not to put Japan on a pedestal by any means, but the religious elements I encountered there (namely Buddhism and Shinto) felt much more raw and palpable than anything back home. Not that I put any stock into any of it, but I did stay at some temples and visits lots of shrines, and I almost *felt* something in my cold, analytical, agnostic frame of reference. I don't know about spiritual power between countries and I don't know how any of that would really work, but I do get where you're coming from.
After all, America is a very young country. You go back a few generations, and every single American (outside of the Native American population) is a non-native. We've tamed the land rather than adapt alongside it, which sort of drives (IMO) a lot of the American concept of conquest. We tame and conquer everything we touch, everything is so fast pace, and things just don't seem to always follow the slow, timely, natural course of things.
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Thank God, Boo--I was worried how you would react when I posted my thoughts last night. Sometimes I go on philosophical rambles and I was hoping you'd 'get it' or 'get me.' I think there's more to RPGs/and JRPGs sometimes, and I try to hunt down or find that meaning. Sometimes when I talk to my "friends" about being Asian and playing RPGs and thus having a somewhat little bit different experience than the rest of the gamer population it's usually almost always met with a bit of gaslighting and disregarding my experience through Asian eyes. They usually say something to the effect of, "We're all the same." or, "We all have the same experience no matter what." I- It's really weird.
I love how you're just like I'm whitebread and I love it. lol I always got a good vibe from you, Boo, and to me you just seem like a good guy. You seem really, totally pretty smart too (I've seen your posts/thoughts on Philosophical Ramblings in another thread) I just don't have as good of a vocabulary or maybe writing comprehension as you do. I'm a pretty simple solid writer. Kinda akin to like the Bible or something.
I would love to know more of your thoughts on politics and thoughts on America as a whole if you don't mind sharing them, Boo, I don't mind at all!!! I think it's very normal to have thoughts that're leaps away from the actual storyline + gameplay we're experiencing. Lol I mean only if you're willing to divulge. :p Sometimes I think we're just at a bar and just shooting the shit like guys do. ("I always love pubs in RPGS.")
I love all that stuff you said about Japan/America and how we're a young country. Sometimes I feel a lot of people I've met try to downplay my experience living there,--where they come from generations of "true Americans" / and I'm just a first-generation immigrant who wasn't even born there and only went with my parents when they came looking for work and I can go to school. I felt that way a lot when I went to HS in Nevada a lot of the Caucasian kids never even really pretended to know I existed to them.
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So I turned to RPGs as a sort of escape from my horrible HS experience going on (I actually played LUNAR 2 when this was all happening). I figured I don't watch much sports, news or any football or other "American"-thing people usually do and Japanese RPGs was more for me. Kinda of like FUBU ("For Us, By Us."). I turned to something I related to more than others my age and something that I felt was one of the few things,- hobbies,- an Asian kid can have in America at the time that he can relate to in some way shape or form.
RPGs mean a lot to me as it was one of the very few things where American writers/translators um gave to me... obviously it was a Japanese game in its heart and core. I found more in the 90s that they were more obviously "hiding" that it was a Japanese game like say the Breath of Fire series they took the time to change items especially food to fit a more American palate, rather than say a Japanese one. I kinda of preferred that way. Compared to now where everyone's jumping down Persona's hole and they want an authentic Japanese game. Japanese names give me a headache. Either that or they make me laugh insanely.
A lot of people say the cultural things in America aren't authentic but I like our translations. I kinda do wanna teach myself Japanese one day too. Just to play Japanese RPGs in Japanese. And to see if I can.
Anyway, Boo--I'll probably talk to everyone in Pentagulia tonight but I won't continue the story. Yeah that's the plan.
Anyway thanks for having an open mind and being understanding, man. Sometimes it's hard for me to find other people, other gamers that get me. Laters! :D
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Thank God, Boo--I was worried how you would react when I posted my thoughts last night.
I'm pretty open-minded and generally accepting of opinions different than my own. Every single human on earth has a unique perspective and equally unique experiences, simple as that. Even if I disagree with an opinion, I try to be respectful and understand where they're coming from. I'd rather reach across the aisle and focus on what we DO have in common than the things we don't. I think the vastness of humanity as a whole, as different as all of our languages and cultures are, has much more in common than we don't.
All that being said, I have a low tolerance for blind hatred, racism, intolerance, that sort of thing. I may or may not not confront the person directly (depends on the circumstances), but I will absolutely shut a person down if they get into bullshit-tery and either ignore them or tell them to fuck off. If they're open to conversation, I may do my part to steer them to positivity, but often times, I don't know how much value is really in rhetoric... especially when you don't know the person (ie online arguments).
I love how you're just like I'm whitebread and I love it. lol I always got a good vibe from you, Boo, and to me you just seem like a good guy.
I mean, I have to be self-aware and recognize what I am and am not. We all should! I have been lucky to have a lot of wonderful life experiences (and some not so good), but I am what I am. I'm a middle class white guy born into a middle class white family, and that formed the backbone of how I was raised and thus the majority of my experiences, haha. I'm absolutely whitebread, though...
...except for my palette. I'm super adventurous with what I eat and usually prefer non-American food over American food. It drives my wife up a wall because I'm always wanting to go to often-questionable restaurants that are of a different ethnicity. I don't mind hole in the walls! The only flavor profile that I've never really been huge on is the entire fermented food profile: kambucha, balut, fermented fish, natto, stuff like that.
Sometimes I think we're just at a bar and just shooting the shit like guys do. ("I always love pubs in RPGS.")
We absolutely are! Haha
I love all that stuff you said about Japan/America and how we're a young country. Sometimes I feel a lot of people I've met try to downplay my experience living there,--where they come from generations of "true Americans" / and I'm just a first-generation immigrant who wasn't even born there and only went with my parents when they came looking for work and I can go to school. I felt that way a lot when I went to HS in Nevada a lot of the Caucasian kids never even really pretended to know I existed to them.
I have one memory of visiting Scotland back when I was in college as part of a cross-cultural experience. I sat on a parkbench by this church and saw a plaque on it -- the parkbench was something like 400 years old and was quite literally older than the United States. It was a really sobering thought regarding the histories of the world, and how small the United States really is on a historical scale.
But yeah, there's definitely some tribalism that happens here. I think it's natural and comes with the territory of being "the melting pot" of the world. We have so many cultures and unique perspectives, and like tends to gravitate to like. But I do believe we're stronger when people can come together in peace and just enjoy those differences rather than hone in on them being dividers.
For example, I grew up being told that anyone who was LGBTQ+ was going to hell and were bad people. I moved halfway across the country between my Sophomore and Junior year of high school, and the first people to reach out and befriend me (when I was sitting alone at lunch) was a closeted (but quite clearly) gay dude and his super emo best gal pal. We became friends and it was a real wake up call that, in reality, he was no different from me.
Regardless, it's still a shame how we tend to gravitate towards tribes that are similar: religious or the color of our skin. It's so stupid.
Anyway, I'm going back heads down into work. I'm on my lunch break and had to step away a little just so I wouldn't have to deal with work for a bit. I manage a big team and it can be exhausting some times. I'm going to explore Pentagulia tonight and move the events along.
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Pentagulia
The music here is pretty stellar. Imposing, slightly sinister, full of religious overtones. It also reminds me of some of the end-game SSSC music.
The people here are of course major elitists, full of hypocrisy and vanity. Also, according to one citizen, some of them are also full of Prozac (as they pass it out like candy in Petagulia, haha). Not surprising, seeing that this is now the world's centralized theocracy. I never really thought about the world having a singular government back in SSSC, I figured it was moreso just each "Zone" ruled themselves (ie Stradius Zone; I can't remember what they all were).
If you go the Dragon Towers, you can see unique scenes in most of them. Interestingly enough, they seem to be fairly new -- or at least Borgan's is, as it was built specifically for him as the wielder of the Black Dragon's aura.
Also, one of the residents mentions Hiro sacrificing Ruby for Althena... are animal sacrifices part of the Althena religion at this point in time?!
One thing that I have a love/hate relationship about EBC is how it handles Althena and her ability to become human. Before I played this game, Althena choosing to become human because of her love for Laike and all of humanity seemed like the ultimate sacrifice. A god giving up godhood to experience mortality and weakness, all in the name of love. Then, is EBC, we find out that she does this pretty regularly - and can even have "children" like Lucia that both are and aren't Althena incarnate, and can exist entirely separately. I dunno, I love it and it opens so many doors for storytelling, but it also cheapens the sacrifice of both Althena and Luna in SSSC. Just my two cents.
As for fake Althena... fuck her. I'm a bit disappointed that Hiro and Ruby were so quick to silence Lucia when she expressed concern. I can expect that out of Leo, but surely that's a bit much to have come from her trusted friends.
In the boss battle against Ghaleon, Ruby didn't bother to help Hiro, haha... But at least it was nice seeing Ghaleon at least admit that the title of Dragonmaster doesn't suit him. I remember little of the plot in this game, but I do remember that Ghaleon is actually a turncoat and is working against Zophar this whole time.
White Dragon Tower
After Hiro and Ruby wake up in the White Dragon Tower, I love the piano song that plays. The theme song of ESB really is peak LUNAR soundtrack. This rendition is particularly nice.
Also... Mystere says, "Never give up, never surrender!" This is a quote from the movie Galaxy Quest. How hilarious. Galaxy Quest came out in 1999 and EBC came out in 1998, so I wonder if it's just random change. Probably, as normally a movie is filmed a year or two before release.
Mystere is such an idiot character and I secretly like it. He's like the super dumb jock in a a movie that finds his heart in the end. Although his theme is pretty lame, haha...
I don't know if you ever noticed but both Leo and Mystere have sprites where they stand around and wiggle their ears. A nice little character addition to the spritework of the game.
Black Dragon Tower
I tackled this tower first in order to rescue Lemina, as her group magic attacks will probably make combat easier. I'll probably rescue Ronfar next, as I need his healing magic to make my life easier.
Alas, I gotta stop here. It's bed time and I have to be up in less than 6 hours for work.
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Boo, I'm really glad when I meet ppl like you either offline or on. It makes me re-think that hey maybe everything's alright in this world and there are still good ppl left. You're a really grounded, down-to-earth dude it's no surprise you've got your life together already and you're just a family man now. Like I wouldn't expect anything else.
I'm actually super skittish to tell ppl my true opinions on video games / RPGs and such bec I see it thru such "Asian eyes" that maybe it kind of puts ppl off at first when I start listing out the things that I relate to it so much. I don't really buy the "We're all the same." and "We all have the same experiences." thing. Like what you said different people, are different people. To me it just seems like they're just disregarding my own personal experience w/ the game being that I am Asian playing a Japanese RPG. It's kinda almost like they don't want to accept that hey they are playing a Japanese game (even though it's trans. into English) and that they enjoy that. A lot- Some of the gamers I've encountered who say they like to play JRPGs seem to like just the superficial on-the-surface stuff: the video games, the anime, some of the food. But when I interact w/ them more and more and see what they have to say it seems to me that they don't even like the people that much. (Asians)
I don't have much to do these days so I spend most of my time analyzing text/lines in RPGs, and sorta thinking about my own life a little bit more and why I like to do this. (play RPGs) Some ppl might think I'm digging for something that's not there, or trying to find more meaning to a [cough] video game but I just like words, and esp. the English translation. I just find it fascinating that that's a job. lol Translating RPG's from Japanese-to-English. Sometimes I wanna translate an English game into Tagalog, and then translate it back--and sometimes I get a different line. :shrug:
Oh, I get you about the food thing. I'm kind of the opposite. I just like home food. Either my Mom's cooking / or stuff I can easily make by myself using the microwave or what-not. My friends when I was 19 asked me "Have you ever tried pho?" and I was like no, I just like home food. And they were shocked and took my out to a Vietnamese restaurant immediately. They think I'm very un-Asian for someone who was born in Asia. I actually don't really like the cilantro used in that kinda way like a soup. I kinda prefer it in the Mexican-style where it's in salsa it seems more fitting like that. They started taking me out to more cultural or ethnic places like Indian / Pakistani / Etrinean type places too. I'm actually not a very big foodie though I did keep the Food Network on in the background on the T.V. in my room growing up. I actually find eating kinda annoying. The dishes. The flossing. Having rancid breath while going out-and-about. So, yeah. I mean, I'm glad they wanted me to be more Asian but that was that.
I'm perfectly happy having a saltine cracker with no salt. And calling it my lunch.
I've never really been that interested in American culture: politics, sports, news. That tri-fecta / or, trinity I have absolutely NO, ZERO interest in,-at. all. I never see anyone like me on T.V. ever anyways growing up so it was hard to relate to the country and its people. I never had any real heroes or ppl to look up to growing up cause I never saw my own face anywhere. Sports is probably the easiest thing to fall into and it was all the same you just never see too many Asians playing sports or a Filipino. I just feel like everyone else has something to relate to when they turn on the boob tube and I never see representation of my own people. So I try not to consume too much American media anymore. Now they're starting to get more minority representation but I figure it's a little too little, to late for me. lol Where was all that when I was growing up and really needed it the most? 36-year-old me just doesnae care anymore.
So yeah all the promises America had for the immigrant "The American Dream," "land of milk and honey," "if you can make it in Detroit you can make it anywhere." It's not really all it's cracked up to be. Sometimes I feel people just don't have connections anywhere else outside of the country and they're pretty much stuck there grown adults with no passport. It's just out of the question moving or traveling to other parts of the world. I just found a lot of people I've interacted w/ very sheltered and they just kinda see what's around the corner at the house, and that's it for their daily adventure? Just staying at the house. Not really looking at applications for new friendships.
At least you were approached in High School. I was never, lol. Was the emo girl your future wife? You mentioned you were High School Sweethearts? I went to a private Catholic school Freshman year of HS and it was like 97.8% Caucasian kids. Soph-Sen year I moved back to San Francisco and went to a HS with a majority of minority kids and it was just normal. :shrug: I dunno why Freshman year w/ all the Caucasians was such a bad experience. Fwiw, for a private Catholic school we never went to church, and no one (even the adults) even ever asked me about my religion. I figured that's why we were there. Such a terrible school. I want my tuition money back. I did get straight-A's that schoolyear though, but the social experience was an F-. Or Incomplete.
I feel blessed everyday that I'm not in America anymore and I can not think about that stuff if I wanted to.
BUT ANYWAYS BOO- So I talked to everyone in Pentagulia and I'm about to go meet with Althena. I was gonna say I LOVE EBC because all of Althena's priests are so hilarious to me. They're like old, brown-haired bearded, and frothing at the mouth for Althena the Goddess that grants them their every wish and desire. They long to be gods themselfs and for to be granted immortality. I think Working Designs was really driving the nail home with how annoying, stupid and crazy the religion had turned into in EBC that I just adore what they did with these characters and it makes me laugh so much. I dunno if they're trying to make social commentary about religious ppl in general in America? Being so one-dimensionally about God IS kinda of hilarious. Having no other part to you as a person.
So yeah- I kinda of wanted to wait for you to update on where you were and I'll just try to catch up I prefer it that way. I kinda wanted to take a break today but I can't NOT play LUNAR so I might just see what happens next after you meet w/ Althena and to see what's up? I think it's just the Mystere thing anyways. And how fruity Leo really is and all that stuff.
Thanks for just listening and not immediately judging.
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As for the game... hehe. I went and talked to Althena... woo woo woo all that drama happens. Another jail scene that's two for EBC. Hurrah! And Mystere pops up. I actually like Mystere I think it's Leo's way of helping Hiro and the group out of the predicament without feeling like he's going against his duty and Althena. :shrug: I've seen weirder things in JRPGs especially now. I tried to use all his spells/skills cause he has new voiceovers for them. "You need a spanking!" was definitely one of my favorites. I'm trying to categorize Leo's character-personality into a box, now that Mystere has arrived on scene... I guess he's one of those soldier/guard-types that's conflicted over following (fake) orders and wants to do the (obvious) right thing, ...without breaking his oath. Works for me!! This's the part in the game where you see Leo make a turnaround so I like that a lot. His overly fanatical, pompous first act act was really um bad for me. I just didn't like it. But now the whole Ronfar/Mauri/Leo relationship has come to the surface and if I remember correctly they make a cute threesome.
I always save Ronfar first I just make a b-line down the red hallway. I dunno how you managed to save Lemina first without having a lot of healing items. I always forget about this part in Pentagulia so for the next time I play I'm gonna definitely buy Healing Herbs and Nuts when it's just Hiro and Mystere on their own. The enemies hit hard and neither has a healing spell so. It's good to have just in case.
I stopped here for now I want to go on but I like when we're somewhat at the same part. Good day to you, Boo! :D Cheers!
Edit: I have more to say lol.
So I went ahead and rescued all three of Hiro's friends and I stopped right in front of the Althena's Statue in the center hallway.
I think it's interesting the juxtaposition of the Four Heroes in this game compared to the last game. In this game, when I was thinking about everything when we first started playing, they're just evil. In SSSC they were kinda exalted as REAL heroes who saved the world and Mel, Lemia, Ghaleon and Dyne all had interpersonal relationships with each other and backstory that involved all four members.
In EBC, they don't really show the Four Heroes: Borgan, Mauri, Lunn and Leo interacting all that much and they don't really seem that close to me as the Four Heroes in the first game. They're just bad people being controlled by Fake Althena and want to revive Zophar. I guess they're searching for ultimate power... or whatever?
Anyway, it seems out of the bunch Leo is the only one that 'sees' what's really going on. Go fig.? He of all, people. It's a little weird Fake Althena doesn't really have a grasp on Leo as much as the other three. He seems free of her binding power. .......... So yeah that's all I came up with? Have fun Boo!
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So I didn't get to play at all yesterday. I got home from work pretty late and the power at the house was off. We're having bad ice storms where we're at, so we were without power until this morning. Temperatures are below freezing, so it made for a very chilly night!
It makes me re-think that hey maybe everything's alright in this world and there are still good ppl left. You're a really grounded, down-to-earth dude it's no surprise you've got your life together already and you're just a family man now.
I think there's a lot more of us than we realize, it's just hard finding each other. That's why I love little corners of the internet like this one. I have found that the best online communities are small and somewhat isolated. I've got a few little communities I participate in, but namely it's here at the Compendium and there a Discord for an author/Youtuber I watch who calls himself Softypapa. I got really into him in the early days of Youtube when he would hike in the mountain of Japan and explore old, abandoned tea farms. He eventually moved back to the United States and has spent a lot of time exploring the deserts of California and he talks a lot about living a good life (and he even wrote a book about it). These are my main two online communities that enrich my life rather than take away from it. I feel energy spent in these communities is energy well spent.
As for having my life together... Only by necessity and luck. I got lucky in that I married a girl I met in college (I saw you ask about that later in the post). We actually dated my sophomore year / her freshman year of college but it didn't really work out. We reconnected a few years later and both had grown a lot, so we gave it another shot and we were much more successful that time around.
I think we've both pushed each other a lot in good ways, so I'm grateful for that aspect of the relationship. If not for her, I probably wouldn't be here. I would have zero aspirations and since I struggle with chronic depression (and I'm in a much better place now), she helps keep me present and in the moment before I descend too far down. I was seriously in a dark place about ten years ago, and I probably wouldn't have made it had I not had her and my kids as lampposts to keep me focused on the big picture. Even though I hate being a cog in the corporate world (I want more meaning in life and wish I was doing something that made more of a difference in the world), I am very grateful for the opportunities I've had and the support structure I've been able to build for myself.
I've never really been that interested in American culture: politics, sports, news. That tri-fecta / or, trinity I have absolutely NO, ZERO interest in,-at. all. I never see anyone like me on T.V. ever anyways growing up so it was hard to relate to the country and its people. I never had any real heroes or ppl to look up to growing up cause I never saw my own face anywhere.
I will say -- Asian representation is a huge problem in the United States. There's very little Asian presence in politics, television, movies, sports, etc. It's just as you said, unfortunately. When you're not represented, I can see how it can be culturally demoralizing. I'm not even Asian and I can see it. There's a lot of focus on African American and now LGBTQ+, but there's been next to so attention or effort to stand up more Asian Americans as pillars of our communities and culture. It makes zero sense to me.
So yeah all the promises America had for the immigrant "The American Dream," "land of milk and honey," "if you can make it in Detroit you can make it anywhere." It's not really all it's cracked up to be. Sometimes I feel people just don't have connections anywhere else outside of the country and they're pretty much stuck there grown adults with no passport. It's just out of the question moving or traveling to other parts of the world. I just found a lot of people I've interacted w/ very sheltered and they just kinda see what's around the corner at the house, and that's it for their daily adventure? Just staying at the house. Not really looking at applications for new friendships.
America has two huge problems regarding travel, not to mention the American Dream.
First, we're a geographically MASSIVE country. It's very hard for an American to travel to another country from a logistics perspective, so we don't get that exposure to other cultures that we so desperately need. Because we're so geographically large, the logistics just aren't there to accommodate travel, and we sure as heck don't have a good transportation system (ie high speed trains) that can even easily facilitate inner-national travel, let alone international travel. The only countries we border are Mexico and Canada (and the Caribbean islands are nearby), but that's it. It's not like Europe or even some parts of Asia where you can just catch a cheap flight or train ride and head to another country for a day or two. As a result, many Americans just aren't aware of the true larger landscape of the world. If you've never left your small town, state, or country, your worldview is likely going to be somewhat limited on that larger world-community scale. The internet is all many Americans have, and quite frankly, it's not enough. Real experience and real exposure is so necessary to build respect and a healthy worldview, but it's really difficult for Americans to get that.
Second, there's the financial aspect. Everything is so damned expensive nowadays. It goes hand-in-hand with the logistics problem, but the costs of travel are also pretty wild. Moving, visiting another state (let alone another country) are insane. The costs of living keep raising and inflation is pushing up the prices of, well, everything. Right now, so many Americans can hardly put a roof over their head, let alone have disposable income that can permit travel and leisure.
For example: I make six figures in USD and we live almost entirely paycheck to paycheck. We drive two old cars (one is 12 years old, the other is 20 years old), we have a hefty mortgage and some land (for farming), and we have next to nothing leftover for vacations or large purchases (such as much-needed house repairs). And we have it good! An example of these needed repairs or house enhancements: we need to run electricity to the barn we built. The barn itself was $30k, and just to run and install electricity is another $5k+. We don't have that kind of money lying around, so we save and scrounge and I'm try to save up so we can finally put in the electricity. Once again, that's such a first world problem and I have it better than most. I am able to make ends meet, but then again, with what I'm bringing home, I should be having TONS of leftover money that, quite frankly, we don't.
I do believe that twenty years ago things were different. I think there was a time that the American Dream was much more tangible, especially in the first few decades after WWII. Sure there were other cultural problems (racism and there were a lot of cultural gaps that were extremely problematic), but financial stability was at least more tangible. All one needed was a high school diploma and could have a house, two cars, and you could even survive on one income. None of that is realistic now.
I legit blame a lot of it on de-regulation and "Reaganomics." Since the 1980s, the quality of life for the middle and lower class has gone down considerable, while money is being pushed to and hoarded at the top. We should not have a society where people cannot afford healthcare while billionaires have pissing contest hobbies about being the first to space. Fuck this version of the system that is failing so many people. And I don't think this is just an American problem, but we're leading the pack.
I obviously have really strong opinions. Food, healthcare, personal freedoms... all of these should be attainable to all. Period. I don't really subscribe to Republican or Democrat political ideologies (because both parties are systemic in holding down the populace), but I do lean liberal and with more humanist approaches to societal problems.
To tie all this back together, I feel it's even harder for minorities to attain the same chances that a man of anglo descent would receive. Not to mention that women aren't even afforded the same chance as a man (at least some of the time). It's just such an unfair, rigged system, and it happens all over the world. There's generally always a power dynamic with majority and minority (look at the Uighur Muslim crisis over in China right now).
Your experiences growing up in the US were very unfortunate. There are so many minorities that have had the same type of experience. Sure, their experiences were unique and different, but the fundamental struggles are the same. It's a damn shame, and it's not just limited to minorities in the US.
What's it like for minorities in the Philippines? Are they afforded the same experiences that native Filipino are? Is there racism against those with darker complexions or of African descent? Just curious.
My thought is -- I can't change the systematic issues. But I damn well can be an agent of change to EVERY SINGLE PERSON I MEET. We gotta lift each other up, because even if we're different, the core fundamentals are the same. We all feel pain, and love, and have hopes and desires.
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Don't worry, Boo--I'm in the Pentagulia Underground about to go through the secret entrance / Althena's Statue. I'll prob play a little bit later cause I can't NOT play LUNAR, haha--.
Boo, I totally see you as some sort of social justice warrior like if we were in the 60s or 70s you'd be one of the white "brothers" throwing molotov cocktails at the police or something. haha
I'm learning so much from you in our conversations you're obviously very smart, much more than I am and I'm just trying to keep up w/ the conversation and have something substantial to reply with.
Oh I struggled a little bit with Depression about 5-10 years ago. It was due to me getting Food Poisoning at work and they had to take me to a hospital in L.A. bec it was that bad, and there they said I was too underweight (I was like 150 lbs.) and so they fed me pills to fatten me up. I ended up gaining over 100 lbs. and left the hospital overweight and depressed. I didn't trust any doctors in the U.S. just cause I didn't trust them. But when I came home to the Philippines I saw a psychologist right away and she helped me out. I started exercising / and dieting and now I'm the happiest I've ever been in my life. Another reason why I don't like the US is I think they're all about drugs... like whether it's pills or whatever? A week ago I was at a pizza parlor here and met an American the first thing he asks me is if I do any drugs and I was like no bec I didn't want to indulge his conversation and bec he might be undercover. I was just like whoa that that's the only thing Americans think about?
Lol. You're telling me. Sometimes I think these "problems" I have are just really petty. Bec my parents worked and lived in the US for 30+ years and they don't give a fuck about any of this stuff. They just care about work and money. They're like robots. Running on coffee/caffeine. They barely have enough time to watch T.V. and think about the stuff I do. I think they're more definition of the American Dream than anything cause they came there with nothing, worked, and saved up enough money to buy themselfs (and me :)) a home in the Philippines and have more than enough saved for retirement. Sometimes when a lot of this superficial stuff is getting to me I just think about them and then I want to just leave the internet and just live my happy life. They don't use the internet or anything. They're just happy people.
I grew up in San Francisco which has a big Asian population so I saw a lot of Asian people everyday. And I grew up in a pretty Asian environment with most of my friends growing up being Asian-American, etc. It's just a drastic change when I get home and turn on the T.V. and see nothing but white people and the occasional Black. It's just, a, little weird. Tbh, when I think about it the T.V. is pretty harmful and just sucks me in so in a way I'm kinda of glad that I realized I'm never gonna be represented on television and I stopped consuming American media that way. One show I dearly love is Survivor though, and I have all (most) of the DVDs and everything so I took that with me back home here... I mean I gotta like something right? I think watching less T.V. is a good thing at the end of the day.
One of the main things I noticed between the Philippines-US is: One the Philippines is a pretty small, homogeneous country with mainly one religion. I see only Filipinos everyday here. I don't have to worry about offending a Black, Latino or white person at work or something or offending somebody in regards to religion. I kinda like that it's just Filipinos here because I feel way more comfortable knowing that my neighbor is prob a Filipino guy just like me? In the US, I feel religion is mostly stunted esp at work like you're not supposed to talk about it? Here they show prayers on T.V. commercials and everything. I've never felt this much comfort in my growing up 26 years in America, there I just felt like people were watching me, nosy neighbors, and the police presence kinda made me feel like they were trying to keep minorities "down." I think the US is just complicated. Here it's a much more simple life.
Tbh, I have my whole life set here now. I don't have to worry about bills or anything. I was laughing one time bec I was thinking about how I pay $4 for water & electricity, and my highest bill was prob the internet at $20. I think about my retirement often, bec I know I'm gonna make it there. Sure it's simpler but I mean I'm not dumb? Follow the money. I pay more for video games here than my monthly bills.
Tbh we don't have "things" like that here. Racism, colorism whatever. PEOPLE JUST DON'T CARE. We have this thing in the US where you turn 18 and you move out and live on your own. Here that's not even thought of bec people live with their parents in the same house until they grow older. It's almost disrespectful to leave your parents alone and people will def look at you funny for it. I think a lot of things like that in America have no idea where it stemmed from. Asians def care for their parents and their family a lot. I know for sure people wouldn't understand that cause we come from two different worlds. I've talked to a lot of ex-pats here who've said they don't like how people abandon their parents in nursing homes so they moved to the Philippines to get away from the "stigma" of wanting to take care of their parents in their own home. WEIRD!!! Only in America would something weird like that even be thought of.
I know some people might call our country uneducated, or undeveloped. But if you think racism and looking down on ppl for random reasons is being "educated" or "cultured" well color me stupid. That's actually one of the reasons why I wanted to get away from America is the looks that people would give me. Like when I was working people would just have strange interactions with me, or I walk into a GameStop and get the weirdest looks cause I'm 20 and waltzing into a kids toy store w/o a family. Shameful! I can see why the Japanese look to automated, robotic transactions now bec a human being is capable of having personal thoughts on someone buying a pack of bubble gum. I mean sometimes you don't need that personal interaction w/ someone else. It's almost kinda of voyeur or perverted.
Anyway Boo, I tried to reply to you as best I can without coffee or an energy drink just drinking hot chocolate lol. I feel so unfocused today haha. I'll prob play more LUNAR later! :D
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Boo, I totally see you as some sort of social justice warrior like if we were in the 60s or 70s you'd be one of the white "brothers" throwing molotov cocktails at the police or something. haha
I would! I've actually participated in a few marches, although it's been a while. Solidarity with all the disenfranchised! Mostly they've been about LGBTQ+, although I did particulate in an early BLM protest a few years back (in secret - my wife doesn't know about it, haha). Not that she doesn't agree with me on many of those fronts (she is anti-LGBTQ+ due to her interpretation of the Bible), but because I'm the bread-winner and she's got a black belt in worrying, hahaha...
I'm learning so much from you in our conversations you're obviously very smart, much more than I am and I'm just trying to keep up w/ the conversation and have something substantial to reply with.
Naw. This is an equal footing convo. I may just have more practice speaking my mind, hahaha. Don't feel like you need to have substantial to say; sometimes just listening is all it takes! I'm enjoying our convo's, both about the game and life in general. I think we always have stuff we can learn from each other. I'm enjoying this whole experience -- we'll be bros in real life if we ever get the chance to meet up!
I started exercising / and dieting and now I'm the happiest I've ever been in my life. Another reason why I don't like the US is I think they're all about drugs... like whether it's pills or whatever?
This was very similar to my experience. I saw several counselors and psychologists, and most were quick to prescribe anti-depressants. I was very much against it, but one gave me the whole "seratonin in your brain, blah blah" speech and convinced me. It helped, but not really; it just dulled my emotions and took the lowest of the lows away, but it also took the highest of the highs away (if that makes sense). Not much joy and not much sorrow, I just felt very numb and detached from life. Once I discovered cardio and exercise and dieting, a light clicked and that was the key to managing my stress and depression. I still struggle with the blues from time to time (especially in winter), but exercise and eating healthy keeps everything in check. And of course, I have my wife and kids to help me stay focused.
Sometimes when a lot of this superficial stuff is getting to me I just think about them and then I want to just leave the internet and just live my happy life. They don't use the internet or anything. They're just happy people.
I feel like the internet is such a blessing and a curse. It's great when it can connect people together - like this little Chrono Trigger loving tribe (that led to our friendship and playthrough of LUNAR). It can also be extremely toxic. I actually don't use any social media outside of LinkedIn for that very reason, and cutting myself off from social media was the best thing I ever did. My internet experience is extremely, extremely curated, and I'm not on it too often.
Tbh, I have my whole life set here now. I don't have to worry about bills or anything. I was laughing one time bec I was thinking about how I pay $4 for water & electricity, and my highest bill was prob the internet at $20. I think about my retirement often, bec I know I'm gonna make it there.
I'm jealous. I literally just paid my bills and... $395.96 for electricity... $69.86 for water... $134.18 for my phone bill... $110 for my internet bill... We probably don't manage the electricity as good as we could, but we're also not bad at all. We don't leave lights on, we keep our heater and aircon at 70 degrees, etc. I could not be any more jealous of you!!!
Maybe I should save up a lot and go to the Philippines and work remotely. :D
Tbh we don't have "things" like that here. Racism, colorism whatever. PEOPLE JUST DON'T CARE. We have this thing in the US where you turn 18 and you move out and live on your own. Here that's not even thought of bec people live with their parents in the same house until they grow older. It's almost disrespectful to leave your parents alone and people will def look at you funny for it. I think a lot of things like that in America have no idea where it stemmed from. Asians def care for their parents and their family a lot. I know for sure people wouldn't understand that cause we come from two different worlds. I've talked to a lot of ex-pats here who've said they don't like how people abandon their parents in nursing homes so they moved to the Philippines to get away from the "stigma" of wanting to take care of their parents in their own home. WEIRD!!! Only in America would something weird like that even be thought of.
YES. This is one of the things I tout about Asian culture. There's a responsibility to the family and you ultimately take care of your own. The only hard part for me would be dealing with my parents -- they're hardcore Christian fundamentalists, so I don't agree some of their views. They're good people but they have some mild racism and just general judgmental personalities. That would be SUPER hard for me if we still lived in the same house. But... family is family.
I know some people might call our country uneducated, or undeveloped. But if you think racism and looking down on ppl for random reasons is being "educated" or "cultured" well color me stupid.
Naw! I was friends with a small Filipino community where I grew up in Ohio. A Filipino lady had married an American GI back in the late 1970s and moved to the States, and she ended up bringing her family and eventually a small community grew up. They were amazing people and she made the best food. They had a son that was about 7 years older than me and he turned out to be a bad dude, but the parents and extended family were solid people. They had so much charisma and joy and politeness I've always associated that with Filipino people. I've also worked with a few Filipino engineers over the years, and they've generally all been similar. There's a lot to like about the Philippines. I just feel like it doesn't get as much attention as, say, Japan or South Korea.
Alright -- onto the gaming!
Red Dragon Tower
I rescued Ronfar. I definitely should have done that first, haha... This is three times easier with his healing spells. I definitely went through A LOT of my stash of healing items and got to the point I almost had to revert to another save.
One thing about Mauri is that I generally remember her backstory with having been given a cure that is later revealed to be the blood of Zophar (or I think it was blood).
I do find it hilarious that the group is opening mocking "Mystere" and talking about the fact that he's Leo -- right in front of him! And he's just staying silent and going along with it.
Blue Dragon Tower
Does this game ever say WHY Lunn started the Shadow Dragon Cult? And who they all were learning to assassinate? I assume just enemies of (the fake) Althena, and to help continue propagating the Chosen religion.
Anyway, after rescuing all of the team members, Mystere runs away because he "just remembered that [he] has to do something." What an oaf. And then, of course, Leo joins the party!
Secret Shrine
Were, like, the False Goddess and her cronies looking for Lucia before all this, or did they randomly come up with the plan to steal her lifeforce after they met her? And what about Leo's original plans to slay the Destroyer as soon as he could? Just seems like none of this was really thought through from a writing and plot standpoint, haha...
Also, Ghaleon mentions returning from the netherworld... does that mean that there is a true hell or netherworld in the world of LUNAR? Does that mean there's a heaven or other kind of afterlife? Hmmm...
And Zophar wants revenge on Althena, but Ghaleon keeps talking about the destruction of the Blue Star. Is the world they are on called the Blue Star, and the world they came from (the "Silver Star") called the Dark Star? I've been wondering about this and this reminded me.
Fifth Tower
Maybe it's just me, but this place looks JUST like Althena's Tower from the end of SSSC! And then when confronted by the villains, it plays the SSSC Burg / Luna theme... I got goosebumps.
Also, Zophar's plan is stupid. To just let Lucia go unchecked knowing she'll eventually have to return to the tower... And knowing that she may end up freeing the imprisoned dragons.
Taben's Peak
Well, rescued by Nall -- and with the White Dragon Wings, no less. I'm reading to collect these Dragon Aura's (and Nall teleported to the White Dragon Cave -- does that mean he's all the way back on the Burg island!?) But alas, I must stop here for the night.
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You are one bad dude, Boo. Bad as in good, lol. You remind me of a lot of the liberal activists I see in San Francisco, dudes that do protests and marches for all kinds of causes and stuff. Pro-weed, etc.... I grew up with a lot of that stuff like the "people fighting the system" type of stuff. I don't usually partake though but I watch from afar, I'm one of those "keep your head down and work" type people, "stay in your own lane" and "Follow the Herd." I just like to play safe, and not get too involved. I really don't want to stick out. Just faceless in the crowd.
I support the gays I think they're so funny, I'm pretty religious but I do find a lot of the stuff in the Bible to be archaic and traditional/too old-fashioned. I'm pretty with the times. They have me cracking up when there's a gay guy on T.V. and he's acting very dramatic!! I laugh my head off.
On the anti-depressants. I don't think about it too much but for me they worked. Literally I took the first pill I was prescribed, I took a nap and I woke up feeling like everything was normal again. This was about 4 years ago. It gave me the motivation to diet, exercise and to ultimately lose weight which was one of the reasons why I was depressed in the first place (my weight gain) so I still take them. After maybe a year and a half of doing this my psych gave me the good news that I don't have depression anymore and I was elated. I asked her why I have to keep taking the meds if I'm not depressed anymore, and she said it was for "maintenance" and to "help with sleep." I was a little skeptical, but was like ok. Tbh, I really don't care about the medication I just take it like it's nothing but it does knock me out at night. I never really think about it. If I'm having trouble sleeping I just take it as a "sleep aid."
I know what you mean about feeling sorta numb and zombied-out. What I did was just exercise (which you can get a natural high from) and just eat healthier, and drink a lot of water and that sorta balances out that 'medicated' feeling. I don't have problems w/ it anymore though. I say it's up to you, if you know it helps than def take it, but if you're uneasy maybe don't take it for a while esp if you have to do things involving talking to people like at work or something. I agree with the doc in just taking it all the time though, and figuring out how to deal with the side-effects/numbness/zombie feeling.
I'm actually looking to expand my social media, haha! But I do prefer, just posting on an old-fashioned Message Board though! I think the anonymity is really special. I also have this Survivor fantasy of being a super charismatic, engaging, personality online that posts big, cryptic, mysterious things haha!!! Na, I really do like just talking to people and getting to know them. I grew up chatting w/ people online ever since I was a teenager so I think it's the normal way to go about things these days. My doctor says to talk to more IRL ppl though (Which's why I said that thing about talking to people that's not your spouse, kids, pets, family. Actual friends and friendships outside your comfort zone).
Yeah... I try not to think about how funny it is paying my bills here, compared to how it was like in the US. I rem living by myself in an apartment on main street San Francisco and the monthly rent was about $1,000. Which was pretty much my paycheck for two weeks, and I couldn't buy that many groceries or anything and it was a Godsend my Mom would send me some stuff to eat some days. I was very uncomfortable living by myself having no one to talk to and not having my dogs there.
Here it's quite the opposite. Just a cute farm, I have so many ppl here everyday to talk to if I want, I have two wonderful dogs. I play around w/ the lot here so I try to grow a little herb garden and then I'll move onto the hard stuff like vegetables and tomatoes, eggplant, okra, etc.... Not to mention the chickens, goats, cows.
Well I get along w/ my parents pretty well. This farm is actually theirs, I have my own house elsewhere but I told them I like this house better so we should switch. XD lol They come to visit a lot though. If they ever annoy me I just let it roll off my back I'm that easy-going plus I'm not gonna raise my voice to 60-year-olds about (petty) arguing. It's just not worth it to me.
Lol, I wish I had stories about fun neighbors I had growing up but they were all of the nasty variety. Like. Seriously. I never get a long w/ neighbors of ours. I just don't like being looked at. By people. Ever. Anywhere. And most people in the US I've encountered are not very friendly. When it comes to my friends we got along great though. I dunno why it's always older people that creep me out in the neighborhood.
Ok. I promise I'll play a little bit of the game more now. I'm about to. The two maids are just in the house cleaning the place up so I'll be nice and settled to game in a few minutes. I'll check you out later Boo!!! ....................
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Regarding the game..........
I did everything you get to do in Pentagulia and made/warped myself back to Taben's Peak. Saved.
I have some thoughts: So Zophar speaks again. Excellent. I thought getting to see the Goddess Tower again was amazing I thought that was such a climax last dungeon for SSSC. The music was great, I am in agreeance.
So this's the part where you have to go to each one of the Four Dragons, just like when Alex had to undergo his Dragon Trials to become Dragonmaster. I think it's pretty funny you get to repeat all that in this game. lol
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Alright, back into the game! Today was a long day so I'm looking forward to just taking it easy and veg out.
Taben's Peak
I talked to all the kids and then went on...
Dragonship Destiny
I'm glad that Leo is coming around, but c'mon dude, a fight? There's no rhyme or reason for it... so I whooped his ass. Haha! And then the bastard leaves because he's upset and/or doesn't feel worthy...? C'mon, dude...
But at least we got a proper vehicle! That's the one thing I didn't love about SSSC... there's no airship or vehicle! I mean, the White Dragon wings are cool, but it's always great in an RPG to get a vehicle late into the story. The exploration elements alone are excellent!
World Map
I think this supposed to be the island where the White Dragon was in SSSC...? The same island with the Weird Woods and Burg... If so, it's sort of sad the entire island is now uninhabited and is just a frosty, glacier-like island.
White Dragon Cave
This is a very long dungeon and took it out of me, lol... I forgot that some monsters can rush me and break the ice pillars. That was something from the first game. Also, I swear Nall said something about needing to get four ice keys are needed to get to him, so I was scouring for these keys before I finally confronted the boss. I apparently am very tired and have no idea where that came from, because after defeating the White Field (aka fake dragon)...
What a nostalgia trip to return to Quark's Cave! Even the song is the same... Man, how awesome. And we were able to see Nall in all his dragon glory! I got the new White Dragon relic, gave it to Hiro, and went back to the world map...
I'm saving here for the night.
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Oh, Boo!!! A wonderful thought just overtook me...
So I just beat Leo, he gave me the White Dragon's Aura and the Destiny... I was gonna bring this up back when you receive the White Dragon Wings (but unfortunately they lost all their power) but now would be an most excellent time to actually backtrack and go back to all the previous towns and talk to the townspeople again. (Hopefully they changed their lines) Usually once I get the ability to go back to previous places I just talk to everyone again. :)
I might set aside a day to do all this, BEFORE I go tackle the White Dragon Cave. Just so you know. :) I get so excited just thinking about it.
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Dang, I didn't even think about doing this before going to the White Dragon Cave!
I'm already saved after the White Dragon Cave but will do the same before I head onto the next town and continue the story.
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Yay!!!!
I'm glad you're up for it, Boo, and down to read all the text the game has to offer and soak in all of the lore of LUNAR 2! :) I would feel awful if I missed a line in the game and I try to do this (backtrack and talk to everyone) after every major event that takes place that'll have the townspeople talking and change their lines. lol
I try to do this everytime I play the game. I dunno if I'm just OCD, anal-retentive or a completionist or whatever-you-would call it? But I just think it's fun to.
So this afternoon I'm planning on starting from the beginning at Gwyn's House, then the Salyan Desert towns like Larpa and then Dalton, and I'll just work my way down the list.
Thanks for enjoying the game with me, Boo!!! Hehe
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I went back to Gwyn’s Outpost, Larpa and Dalton. Unfortunately that was all I can fit in for tonight.
No luck in Larpa. Literally no one’s lines changed. Everyone says the same thing since the first time you left.
I got lucky in Dalton though. Maybe half the townfolks’ lines changed. Now they’re talking about how it’s rumored that Leo was kicked out of Althena’s Guard. lol
I can’t wait to check out the rest of the towns tomorrow! :)
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I haven't had much time to play yesterday or today, unfortunately. Yesterday I couldn't play and tonight I just went grinding away in the White Dragon Cave.
I then followed suit like you and went back Gwyn's House. I haven't talked to him or anyone else yet, though, and I saved right there. I'm already post-White Dragon Cave, so we'll see if things look different for me. I'll keep you updated!
I hope you're having a good weekend, dude. I ran around all day grocery shopping and taking my kids to sporting events. Ate a hefty burrito at lunch and then tried to jog this evening before the sun went down... The jog went well, but that burrito was still weighing heavily on me, hahaha...
Tomorrow will be church and then I'm on solo dad duty with the kids while my wife goes to a Galentine's party thing with her friends. I should be able to pick back up tomorrow.
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I went ahead and talked to all the townspeople from Larpa-Azado. A few people change their lines so it's worth checking out.
-Like one person changed their line in West Nota, I think?
-I think Giban is the only one to change his line at the Carnival.
-The Mayor/Maria change their line in Zulan.
-Meribia has a lot of people changing their line about Ramus' Tunnels of Terror. :lol:
-No one changes their line in Vane.
-A bunch of people change their line in Azado.
I'll try to go to the White Dragon Cave now.
I'm having a wonderful weekend, man. I started to realize that walking for 1 hr. a day got kinda boring/tiring and that could be an hour spent on something else. So I'm trying to switch it up and try OMAD "One Meal a Day." I'm just not very fond of eating 3 meals a day lately so I just eat dinner now. I drink water throughout the day though a lot of it. I had a burrito today too! It was very filling I'm still full off of it right now!
Not anything too exciting at the ranchhouse. Just bought some soil for my herb garden, and some stuff for my dogs. I'm trying to find a frog toy for my one dog cause she's curious about frogs maybe she'll like it? I'm just buying other little nick-knacks as well.
I've been really busy playing Yakuza 0 for PS4. It's a really good series you should check it out especially if you're into Asian/Japanese culture.
I'm thinking about whether I want to stay up tonight or just go to sleep... Hmm?
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I've been really busy playing Yakuza 0 for PS4. It's a really good series you should check it out especially if you're into Asian/Japanese culture.
I've picked up a few of the Yakuza games, but haven't really had a change to play them. Eventually, especially seeing as you said -- it's a slice of Japanese life that a weeb like me would probably enjoy, haha...
I haven't been playing many video games outside of LUNAR. Things have been too hectic at work and with the kids. I've played a little bit of Dragon's Dogma recently, but that's it. It's one of those games I tend to pick up and put down a lot. I have yet to beat it and although I love the open-nature world of such games, the difficulty and grinding makes me occasionally frustrated and I put it down for a few months. I'm so close to the end (although there's post-game content), so I just want to get it over with at this point, haha...
Anyway, it's way past my bedtime. I've been up working and didn't get to play LUNAR tonight. I have a report due Tuesday and some of the data I needed was late getting to me, thus the late night work fun. Hopefully tomorrow!
Have a great one, homie!
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Hiya, dudester. So a little update--wasted the White Dragon Fiend and saved there.
I'm up for continuing the story now whenever you are, man. Looks like we're going for the Blue Fiend next and Jean gets an upgrade in her powers. Yesss!!! She'll become even more vicious in battles now!
Nothing much going on over here, homes. I'm doing OMAD "one meal a day" and I feel so much more better. I don't feel like a bloated mess when going to sleep at night and I have tons more energy to game/or watch DVDs at night now! I'll try to keep this up as long as I could! I'm still doing my daily walk I just need to clear my head sometimes and walking around kinda aimlessly all blank helps a lot! The maids have taken the burden off my shoulders of doing the housechores so I have much more freetime to game! I've been gaming non-stop the last 3-days actually! Usually I'm on Yakuza 0 during the day and I finish up what we have to do for LUNAR 2 at night.
I'm glad you're staying busy at least, I try to do the same. I think staying busy is important. You're such a workhorse, dude. Anyway glad everything is going well with you! I look forward to your updates on just lifes, in general. :)
Have a good one too, Holmes!
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I've found about the same regarding NPC dialogue changes (a few changes, but not much). For example in Dalton, several people mention Leo being thrown out of Althena's Chosen. I never chatted with anyone in Azado after all the events with the fire, so I don't know what's changed from then, if anything. A few lines in Meribia...
I'm pressing on! Onward to...
Horam Village
Dang. There's so much dialogue in this game that absolutely wouldn't fly today. I wonder if SSSC is like that? I haven't played any of the SSS games in about 5 years or more, so it wouldn't surprise me if there was some stuff in there that I never noticed. Guess I gotta play it again! In fact, next time I play Silver Star, I think I want to play the Harmony version.
Looks like we're going for the Blue Fiend next and Jean gets an upgrade in her powers. Yesss!!! She'll become even more vicious in battles now!
I know, right? I remember her unlocking a few combat spells at this point, when her powers are unlocked. I'm ready! I also upgraded my gear, so I'm ready to rock. Luckily some of that gear was found back in Pentagulia, so I didn't have to spend as much.
Wong Lee > Lunn. I had forgotten all about Wong Lee and that he was Lunn's master.
An NPC mentions that Blue Dragon Fist martial arts was invented 1,000 years ago. That would put it right at the time of Alex and Luna. Was there something from SSSC that indicates the creation of the martial art form that I don't recall...?
Now to the Tournament! I like that Jean gets a costume change here; I always like these kind of character changes in jRPGs. Some of the Tales games come to mind, which characters changing hair styles and outfits.
Anyway, I'm quitting her for today. Tomorrow is the tournament, and I'm gonna beat Lunn's ass!!!
I'm glad you're staying busy at least, I try to do the same. I think staying busy is important. You're such a workhorse, dude.
I agree it's great to stay busy, but there's also a point (with work anyway) that's too busy. It takes away from my wife and kids and just leaves me feeling drained. Today was one of those days. I worked a twelve hour day, and some of the data I needed didn't get to me until last minute today. We're talking at like 6:00pm, which means I had to work another hour to put the data into the deck.
Tomorrow I'm back into the office for the next few days, so I should have time to play, it will just be short. I tried starting Death's Stranding a few weeks ago and have barely been able to put a dent into it; I haven't played since January 21st, if that tells you anything. Pretty much all my gaming time is going right here to beautiful LUNAR.
Keep calm and carry on, my friend!
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Hey, Boo I didn't get much done besides taking the Destiny and taking my ass to Horam. I'm just so tired. I've mentioned that I've been doing one meal a day and when I finally got around to eating dinner my ass just passed the fuck out. I woke up from a great nap just now, but I'm still way too tired to even sit my ass down in front of the T.V.. I promise I'll get everything in Horam done tomorrow. It's my first time doing one meal a day and it just hits different! Plus I took my daily walk for 1.5 hours this late afternoon that might have something to do with it.
Anyway I hope you're still fighting the good fight. I'll see you around, my man! :D
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I promise I'll get everything in Horam done tomorrow.
Naw, man, don't sweat it. I never want this to be something we feel obligated to do, so we just keep playing what we feel like playing. I'm in no hurry. Like I said, this is pretty much the only gaming I'm doing (outside of a little Dragon's Dogma on the Switch, which allows me to pick up and put down games for 10 minute increments easier). Just play when you feel like it! :D
This actually works out for me, too -- today has been a really long day, and I just got home. It's 8:08pm here, so you can imagine that it's been a long day. I'm also going to be waking up at 4:15am tomorrow morning so I can get into work earlier and do a morning jog, so I'm going to hit the hay here shortly.
Tomorrow I'll see about fighting Lunn and finally get those sweet new abilities for Jean. I find it kinda funny that the game just dumps several new attacks after that battle (or if memory serves me correctly that's what happens).
It's my first time doing one meal a day and it just hits different!
Sounds like intermittent fasting! I've done it before, too, and it can be a change. Great for weightloss, but it can be a real damper on the spirit. I've struggled when I tried and eventually landed on doing IMF for 18 hours a day and just gave myself a six-hour window to eat whatever I wanted, and normally one solid meal had me covered. Now that I'm running a lot, though, I have to load up more frequently.
I also ate like garbage today. A hot chicken sandwich and french fries for lunch, and then pizza for dinner. I normally don't eat that bad, and I'm paying for it. I feel gnarly, haha...
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Ah, thanks for the reassurance, boss Boo! Oh it's just that LUNAR is really special to me and I don't want to mess up this playthrough especially since it's a dual-play and everything. Lol tbh sometimes I get a little annoyed when we're at the same spot, and you get a MEGA-chunk done in one sitting like a dungeon/town combo and I'm like damm Boo got so much done in such a short-session! :p
I'm really bad at time-management. I wish there was more hours in a day to get more stuff done. The one thing that annoys me the most is having to get 8-hours sleep. I feel like it's such a waste of time. Also if I didn't have to eat that'd be great too! lol I'm serious. I don't really have too many responsibilities besides taking care of the farm. My daily plan is usually play a bunch of Yakuza 0 cause I'm really into it right now, and but I always set aside time to play LUNAR 2, always. It's like my special treat for myself. I'm doing a lot more analyzing about video games, in general and like JRPGs, too. Yakuza 0's got me hooked though, man.
So I talked to everyone in Horam and Jean had an outfit change. Cool! I actually wanted to fight a bit more in the White Dragon Caves while Jean was still a dancer cause once she dons her martial arts she never goes back so I wanted to say goodbye.
You're right there was one line in Horam that took me by surprise. That would never fly by today's standards. Working Designs always did have a 'colorful' translation and I always thought they would always try to push the envelope with what they could get away with thru writing. I noticed reading a lot of books as a kid that you can get away with so much more through text, than what you can't show in movies and film.
I'll probably do the tournament tomorrow. From what I remember there's a lot of talking to people at the tourney cause there's a lot of participants, so I have to brace myself for that!
Catch ya on the flip-side, Boo! :D
Also yes. I've been experimenting with what I can do with diet/exercise but I realized I just need to move my ass around more and not worry about food so much. Sedentary is a scary word to me as a gamer so I try to get outside and do shit whenever I've had an hours-long session and was just sitting there the whole time. I'm also trying not to sleep a whole lot? I think the recommended 8 hours is a little long, so I try to be bad and maybe do 7. hee-hee And decrease, and decrease as I get used to it. I used to be a total vampire in High School I would go to sleep at 4:30am and wake up at 7:00 for school. I don't think I could ever get away with that now but I could sure try!
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Hey, Boo.
Finished the tournament at the Zen Zone, as promised. It was a lot easier than I had remembered so. The funniest part was probably the Bunny fighters all their lines had me cracking up. Love seeing girls in bunny outfits in JRPGs. :thumbsup: The tournament was actually way, way too easy for me it makes me wonder if I'm overleveled? Anyway. Love Jean's new get-up. I used to not like her as much before this playthrough but after reading the storyline-text much more slowly and closely I got a better grasp of what her storyline's about and she's a pretty nifty character. Makes me love that I love LUNAR. I'm always learning new stuff about it and my feelings towards it each time I play.
So Lunn coughed up the Blue Dragon Aura, so heading to its cave is the next logical route. I found it kinda baffling that Lunn just spends all his time as one of the Four Heroes holding martial arts tournaments cause he enjoys it so much. Random? The Four Heroes are all just bad people in this game.
Anyways. Just wanted to wish you a good day and hope you're doing well. Keep fighting the good fight! :D
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Dang, this week has been really tough for me to find time for LUNAR. My apologies for that. I know I've said it before, but I go into the office on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and they end up being like 14+ hour days, not to mention I sometimes have to go grocery shopping after or I need to go to one of my kid's school events.
I also have a new employee, so he's doing lots of shadowing and knowledge transfer. He's actually my replacement but he doesn't know it yet, as I was given a "promotion" at work some time back. It's a job advancement but doesn't really come with a raise, so it doesn't really feel like a promotion. Corporate culture is so stupid like that and I'm already tired of the grind. I just want to help people and have enough money to live comfortably. Why is that so hard?!
Anyway, I'm back in the game and finished the tournament, too, so we're in the same place.
Zen Zone
Every jRPG needs a good tournament event. Here we are!
First off, I find it hilarious that the battle site is called the Zen Zone. Not to mention the bloodthirsty insanity of the guard at the entrance.
Anyway, so the teams are:
- The Gale Karate dojo, which we met back in town. They're essentially cowards and get the name because they run away like the wind.
- The Drunken Karate dojo, which we also met in town. They mostly pretend to be drunk to catch people unaware, but seem to be decent fighters.
- Then here we meet the Bunny Karate gang, who are just anime bunny girls. Haha.
- The Armadillo Karate group are just heavily armored soldiers.
- The Assassins are just that (and apparently easily noticeable because they are usually covered in bruises). And they apparently only practice for less than 20 hours a day. And they have really smooth hands, which they claim is just from being so worn down from battle. Hilarious.
- The Wolf Karate group, which are wolf-like humanoids. Are they beastmen...? Vile Tribe members...? A new race we hadn't seen before...?
- The Shadow Fist Cult, which look the most like normal people. I guess because they're mostly stolen children forced to fight.
- And the Outsiders, who it took me forever to realize who they were. I kept walking around looking for them before realizing... Hiro and Jean and company are the Outsiders, hahaha... I'm an idiot. Haha!
Another thought -- I forgot that Jean gave up her fans here to do actual martial arts and fight with her fists. I do miss her ranged attacks, but her attacks hit harder.
Kind of hilariously, Lunn fights like a mix of Street Fighter moves and Dragonball Z. Once defeated, though, I'm glad that he repents and changes his ways and resolves to become a better man and learn the power of his heart and the Blue Dragon Karate style, but... the guy faces zero punishment for effectively kidnapping children and turning them into murder-machines. He absolutely should have been taken by the authorities or a mob of angry parents that have finally realized that Lunn was the bad guy. How annoying!
Anyway, tomorrow it's off to the Blue Dragon Cave to meet with the Blue Dragon!
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Hola, Boo-san.
No worries on being busy. Lol at corporate life. This probably doesn't compare but when I worked at Chipotle Mexican Grill I was surprised at how American businesses are so corporate. I thought I was just there to make and serve food? You wear the suit, tie and sunglasses. I remember it'd be a couple free weeks and then someone from corporate comes in to check on us on one day, and they pull us aside to interview us and they check how we handle the food and they even wait in line to see how our customer service stands up to their wants? It was all kinda of just what-not to me it was my first job so I just acted natural all the time. I watch a LOT of Survivor so I know exactly how to handle "family person, works in office, 'business' person" all the time you just say all the right things just to moo-ve them along in your life. I kinda liked it/didn't like it. I was just all about the food there and talking to all the customers and making sure to keep them happy. Sometimes I felt I was too "perfect" for them, and that place really.
Anyway. So I'm in the Blue Dragon Cave. -I'm keeping in mind you're having a very busy week.- I'm planning on just staying in here and grinding. I had a few equips I couldn't afford to purchase in Horam and I did the tournament anyway lol! I went back to buy them and I think there's some lines-changes too. I also want to grind to be able to buy A LOT of Star Lights (I'm not gonna touch the Silver Lights.) because I hate keeping the boss in mind and not wasting MP or dodging fights, so I'll just use my skills and then Star Lights. The Blue Dragon Cave is very relaxing to go through fighting every battle because it's blue and Hiro's Batallion Sword or Jean's Blue Dragon Kick can insta-wipe out any battle.
Have fun, Boo!!! I'm wishing you well!!! :D
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Hey man! So I didn't get to post last night, but I did stop to play for like 15 minutes. I didn't even get to the end of the Blue Dragon Cave, so I don't really have much to comment on story-wise.
Tonight is a father-daughter dance, which is a little nerve-wrecking. It's a full suit-and-tie affair. I have to dress like that for work, but it's not dancing and socializing with other dads that I don't know. Haha.
Today was a long one -- I had to take one of my kids to sports while my wife took the other to their sports. Then I had to come home and chop up a tree that had fallen on the territory, then clean the chicken coup, and finally collect and take the garbage to the dump. We have to take our garbage to the dump about once a week, give or take.
By the way -- how many chickens did you say you have? I assume a lot based on what we've talked about. We only have six.
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Blue Dragon Cave
Played tonight, but it was just more grinding in the Blue Dragon Cave. I'm currently near the end and I saved right in front of the boss.
A few random thoughts...
- Some of the creature noises in this game cracks me up. In this place, there's the squeaks of that one creature.
- We also get platforming here for the first time! Well... not really... but there's jumping! And it's automatic, so we can't control it, haha...
- I've playing around with the various crests and have gone all out to give Jean some evade... but I do miss her ranged fan attacks.
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Hey, Boo! Sounds like you're quite the Super Dad!
As for me,--Not much going on just another sleepy day on the farm. We have about 200+ chickens just for the male ones, who knows how many hens + chicks there are probably a lot... lol. My Dad and the guys that work for us here really, really like to go cockfighting so that's why there're so many males. We've even won a tournament before (+ prize money!) and have been interviewed by a local reporter/magazine so. My Dad likes cockfighting in his retirement so I let him have his fun...
I've been busy with Yakuza 0 for PS4 which I beat tonight. It was pretty cool. I'm thinking about playing more of these just guys talking cinematic games cause it's really chilled-down and they have a lot of older characters like 30 and up and it feels more my age. I was thinking about getting Dragon Quest XI but I dunno if I'm ready for that epic of a JRPG with LUNAR 2 on my plate right now, ...
As for the game I'm still right where you're at just grinding in the Blue Dragon Cave. I didn't touch the game today for once finally. I still have to talk to everyone in Horam.
The pots I ordered for my herb garden was delivered today so I'm working on that. I also ordered a sushi roller + nori seaweed to make sushi rolls/kimbap cause I wanna to try experimenting in the kitchen, I'm sooo bored, and it's really down slow days here on the farm... My dog loves the bed/blanket/mat I got her she just sleeps on it all day while I'm inside gaming with me... I recently restarted my re-watch of Survivor (the T.V. series) so I've been recently really getting into that. I love it cause it's such a family show. I hear a lot of families sit down and watch it together a lot. I hope to introduce my kids (when I have them) to it cause it's such a big part of my life.
Anyway hope you're not TOO bogged down with work these days, I always look forward to your posts whenever you're like, "oMg!1 I had 2 hours of free time tonight so I got a LUNAR session in!!!!!1one" :p lol. Have a good one, Boo! :D
Sorry for such a late replay I was like I said on Yakuza 0 all day.
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The pots I ordered for my herb garden was delivered today so I'm working on that.
Nice! We do a little herb garden every spring, with mint, basil, thyme, rosemary, cilantro, chives, etc. It's great to have such fresh herbs available. I generally use the basil and cilantro the most. I like to cook thai curries and tom kha gai, and basil is needed in a lot of thai cuisine! I also make a lot Mexican tacos, so the cilantro gets used in both pico de gallo and the guacamole. I wish I could grow avocado's -- we love them in our family! They're not the cheapest, though.
I also ordered a sushi roller + nori seaweed to make sushi rolls/kimbap cause I wanna to try experimenting in the kitchen ...
I've been experimenting with sushi (just making simple ones - california rolls, avocado rolls, etc) and I haven't quite nailed it. I've got the taste pretty much down (I wasn't using rice vinegar on the sushi rice for a while, and that was throwing things off), but I still can't get the rice consistency quite right. Like your typical gringo, rice isn't my specialty! Haha!
I've always heard that both sushi rice and fried rice work best if use rice from the day before that's been refrigerated. Not sure how true that is, but I have yet to try that -- I don't plan ahead well enough to know I'm going to make it the day before.
I recently restarted my re-watch of Survivor (the T.V. series) so I've been recently really getting into that.I hear a lot of families sit down and watch it together a lot. I hope to introduce my kids (when I have them) to it cause it's such a big part of my life.
I was at uni my roommate LOOOOVED Survivor and even applied to be on it several times. He never even got it to the audition process. But I have many, many good memories of sitting in our little dorm room watching CSI: Las Vegas and Survivor reruns on DVD.
We tend to watch some shows as a family. For a long time it was only adventure shows (Lost in Space, A Series of Unfortunate Events, etc) but we've recently started reaching out to cooking competitions like Iron Chef and some of the new Netflix series. I really like "Best Leftovers Ever," in which the home chefs have to use real leftovers to make new dishes. Anyway, I never even thought about Survivor for the family, but that's a great idea! I'll have to see what it's streaming on. My daughter, in particular, is a little naturalist and she'd love the nature challenges on the show.
Off topic, but there are so many good games out right now that I'm dying because I can't play. Hogwart's Legacy and Dead Space both come to find. It's not a matter of affording them, I just don't have the time. Because I tend to be a slow gamer these days (just due to lack of time), I tend to wait for games to go on sale before I pick them up, so I'll get them eventually... I actually really like survival horror games like Resident Evil, Amnesia, Soma, Alien Isolation, Silent Hill, etc... I actually re-played a heavily modded version of the first Dead Space game this time last year. So yeah, the remake is one I'm dying (ha) to play.
It's almost midnight here and I have to be up in about 6 hours, so I'm going to put in about 15 minutes of game time before I head to bed. I think I'm just going to grind a bit instead of advance the plot. Feel free to take a day off whenever you want -- I don't want to rush, but I also don't want to hold you back for when you're rearing to press on.
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I've never planted anything (legal :p) before in my life, and I figured since I'm on a farm with a huge plot of land I might as well take advantage of it. The maids help me figure things out. Usually I spend a lot of time thinking of projects and I start it and I get the housestaff to help me out cause I'm usually very, very busy in my Man Cave lol. I got a few types of seeds but mostly I'm trying to grow Thai Basil, Sweet Basil and Cilantro. I think we have the same taste palate. The basil is for Italian stuff I make like pastas, and spaghetti, etc. And for a few specific Asian dishes like Thai Mint Chicken/Thai Basil Chicken. The cilantro I use for stuff like Mexican dishes. I used to work at Chipotle so I have the recipe for the Cilantro-Lime Rice memorized that I wanna kinda try making at home. I also have this huge idea to try to make Vietnamese pho which I think will be an endeavor but from what I've seen in YouTube videos it doesn't look TOO daunting of a task. There's some other seeds I bought that I planted like Chives, and whatever but I've never used those before. Time to make use of all the time I spent watching The Food Network as a teenager. :p
I've never made sushi before but it looks so easy. Lol I had to scoff a little bit no offense when you said you couldn't get the rice right!! :p As an Asian kid growing up I know how to make rice like pouring water in a glass, so. Lol, dude!! That's the funniest thing ever when I hear people say they can't make rice.
Survivor is pretty much my only other hobby/interest besides playing JRPGs. It's been a huge part of my life and I've poured so many hours into the fandom. I think the show is great. You should definitely try to watch the first season it's sooo good and I think you'll love the characters!! :p At work, my bosses would make small talk with me and ask me what I like to do and stuff and what my plans are for the future and I always bring up Survivor and how I want to grow my kids on it, and have different "themes" in ea. room of the house like a jungle theme, an Asian theme, a Fijian cannibalistic dark magic theme, etc. They go to different locations each season so it's fun to have a favorite season like whatever you're into. I think they teach you so much about surviving out in the wild like say there's no electricity or running water should that ever happen, and you need to know how to start a fire without matches? I think if you're a business person it helps with themes like money, and strategy. Tbh, I'm so old now I just watch for the hot women ea. season, lol!! :p They're always running around the beach in two-piece bikinis or by God just their underwear... Haha. I think it has a little bit of everything for everyone. AND KIDS LOVE SURVIVOR!!! There's so many excited kids in the audience at the finales and all of them love the show. I've applied before too right when I turned 21 but never got a call-back. I guess they weren't ready for someone like me. I'm glad I at least applied and tried-out.
Tbh, Survivor always felt like an old white man's show cause it's on CBS and I always see golf on there. Lol!! :p Sometimes I feel like an old man sometimes with the shows I watch. Like I imagine an old couple watching Survivor in bed or something, - Haha!!
I know (abt. - games) ever since I got a PS4 Pro I've been like so looking forward to new games I'll be getting to play. I just beat Yakuza 0 so I went ahead and ordered the next one. I didn't know it was such a good series. And I love how "Asian" it is? Feels right up my alley, finally. I'm pretty much eyeing Dragon Quest XI as my next epic JRPG adventure after I get through with what we're doing with LUNAR 2. I'm just waiting.
Oh. I was planning on just beating the Blue Dragon Cave today but I agree we should just take it slow, - lol Hahahaha. I'm so down for taking this game slow. I almost don't want our project to end. After I post this, I'll go back to Horam and talk to everyone and probably go through the Caves again and stop at the Boss. :shrug: Sounds good to me!
I'm alone at the farmhouse it's just me and the dogs so I've been staying up later than usual. I'm having an after-dinner dessert coffee cause I wanna PUMP PUMP before my workout at night, so.
I'm so glad you've watched Survivor before, Boo!! Anytime anyone brings up Survivor it's such a good way to get on my good side and it makes me insta-LIKE YOU!! Not that I didn't before already but I just feel Survivor's changed the way T.V. is now I mean it was a huge influence back in the day in 2000. Now everything's a reality show. Sometimes I like to analyze the show, pick up on new ways to say things in American-English (like soundbytes) but mostly it's vastly entertaining for me. I just like to see heads talking on T.V. now. I've kinda stopped consuming American media ever since moving here but Survivor's the one thing I brought with me here. I have about 26 out of the 44 seasons currently. It's a huge deal for me and I'm glad I have another hobby besides (GOD!!) video games.
Anyway, thanks for another interesting post, Boo. Love ya!! Take care, and have a good one!!! :D
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I've never planted anything (legal :p) before in my life
420, baby! I'm pro-marijuana, so I say convert that chicken farm to a pot farm and have at it, hahaha... Jk, jk... I don't smoke pot anymore, but did a little back in my younger years. When I got married my wife had never tried it. I'd already stopped smoking, but I bought some so she could experience it. It was bad weed and she was tripping and it was a horrible experience, hahaha... If my work wasn't strict with drug testing, I won't lie, I probably would be using it to help calm myself and just chill after some really stressful work days (which are pretty common these days, unfortunately).
As for the rice...
I had to scoff a little bit no offense when you said you couldn't get the rice right!! :p As an Asian kid growing up I know how to make rice like pouring water in a glass, so. Lol, dude!! That's the funniest thing ever when I hear people say they can't make rice.
Look at you making fun of me! Lol. I'm gonna make fun of you next time you try to make a casserole, since that's the ultimate white people food! HAHAHA! /s
For real, though, I can make rice, and I do make rice dishes all the time. I make white rice with stirfry occasionally. It's just a matter of perfection for the sushi, haha... For example, you obviously can't just cook up rice and then turn around and use it for sushi, as the moisture level is too high. I'm figuring it out, but since rice wasn't a staple in my house growing up, a man has to learn some time! Hahahaha!
Survivor is pretty much my only other hobby/interest besides playing JRPGs. It's been a huge part of my life and I've poured so many hours into the fandom
Alright, I'll bite. What's your favorite season of Survivor? I admittedly haven't watched in over ten years. I had to look it up and I think Season 23 (South Pacific) was the last season I watched.
I remember they went to Palau like two or three times, and those were always my favorite seasons. I had a girlfriend in high school who was half-Palauan (her dad was from Palau, her mom from the States), so I was always interested to see the country and see what it was like. I admittedly love island culture. My grandfather also fought in WWII in the Pacific Rim and always spoke positively about his experiences in the various Pacific islands.
Thinking of beautiful island culture -- if any place in a video game was real, I'm pretty sure I'd want it to be Besaid from FFX. I would absolutely love to live there. The song from the game is ballin', too!
Just looking through pictures of the Philippines, ya'll got some BEAUTIFUL scenery. All the rocky stonefaces with tress sprouting out of them, and the greenish-blue water, it looks beautiful.
As for the game, I played on my lunch break. I may or may not play more tonight.
Blue Dragon Cave
I went on and fought the boss. I actually found him pretty hard -- he had that rain-like / tidal wave group attack that did major damage to the entire party. Ouch. I used up a few Star Light just to keep the MP healing going.
Going on into the dragon's chamber... I don't remember if we saw this in SSSC. It looks new to me, but I may not be remembering it. Same with the Blue Dragon -- is this design different than from previous games?
Anyway, the Blue Dragon sort of sucks, haha... S/he obviously has some sort of prophetic dreams or can see world going-on's when asleep. It saw, through dreams, Hiro adventuring and finding Lucia. And then of course it gets loose-lipped and spills the beans about Lucia possible destroying the world once she gains the powers of the four dragons to destroy Zophar... So she probably really is the Destroyer! I can't recall much about the rest of this game, so that part doesn't ring a bell, but it totally makes sense.
I Miracle Litany'd out of the cave and pressed on.
It took me a minute to gain my bearings and know where to go next. The game never really gave you any direction. I finally got on the right track and encountered Neo-Vane, which is powered by the Black Dragon. Alas, I've lost the Dragonship Destiny and must go on foot.
I've gone into the mine but only fought one battle. The little guys that charge at you say "whooo" as they run at you and it's yet another hilarious monster sound. This game really has some of the best-worst monster attack sounds. Hahaha!
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No offense, Boo but I knew you had to be some form of a stoner back when we first started talking, call it a hunch or my stoner-dar blipping off!! Haha it's probably just the way you talk. Well I'm from San Francisco and everybody smokes weed there so I dabbled when I was younger for sure. I don't smoke anymore either and I don't plan to. I've had some wild adventures regarding marijuana I could probably tell you a few wacky stories. :p It's definitely fun to look back on and think well at least I enjoyed my 20s.
Lol, to be honest I don't know what white people eat. :p Couscous???? Lol. I just think it's funny when people/non-Asians are like "oh I make rice all the time" and I'm sitting there thinking like imagine having rice with literally every meal: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's just always apart of the/your meals. And there's always gonna be sacks of rice in the kitchen. I ALWAYS laugh when people say they don't know how to properly make rice/or it comes out with a certain unfavorable consistency. Lolol!! My Grandpa taught me how to make rice when I was young, and I make it like no problem. You should just pour the amount of rice you want in the rice cooker and add about a thumb of water. If you don't have a rice cooker at home well I don't know what to tell ya. Cooking it on the stove is definitely harder. And more prone to burning. But some people like the burnt rice on the bottom.
YAY!!! Survivor talk. My favorite season is probably Season 6 - The Amazon. If you think "jungle" the Amazon has to be one of the most popular jungles out there, so I thought it was amazing that they went there for one time. The storytelling, and the way the competition unfolds is great. It produced one of my favorite winners. There's a lot of drama, but just the competitors being in the Amazon jungles and trying to survive was great to watch. The soundtrack is really good. I think the producers get actual natives to create music for them and they record it so it sounds really authentic. It's also one of the earlier seasons too so it's great to experience Survivor in it's hey-dey.
The HD seasons are also really good too. If I could recommend a newcomer to the show I'd probably recommend they start with an HD season cause you can't go wrong with the visuals and if they like the show they can go back and watch the earlier ones. Gabon is a good place to start. They go to lush Africa and it's a pretty epic locale. Cause like. Africa. lol
Ok. Now that you've given me the go-signal I'll go ahead and try to beat the Boss in the Blue Dragon Cave. Last night I just talked to everyone in Horam and watched the first season of Survivor all night WIRED-out on coffee lol. I took a 3-month break from drinking it but I decided to have a cup before my PUMP PUMP nightly workout, and it hits you a lot different for sure!!
I've been staying up a lot later than usual lately so I'll have plenty of time to play catch up. I'll catch you around, Boo!! Take it easy!! :D
Edit:
Here are the chicken pictures, I promised. It just took a while cause I have to resize it on my computer and then send it back to my phone again.
(https://i.imgur.com/68P5OXa.png)
Here's one part of the chicken part of the farm and how all the chickens are set up.
(https://i.imgur.com/eFM7sxu.png)
Here's a handsome one.
(https://i.imgur.com/YhiYOGk.png)
I like the white ones I think they're lucky.
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Sorry for being MIA the past few days, one day was Valentine's Day and my wife and I went on a date night (the second time in three years, so not often) and we were out until like 1:00am. I had to turn around and wake back up at 5:00am, so I have been sleep deprived. Both last night and today I had like 14 hour work days, so I'm just now getting to a place I can step back, take a breath and relax.
Tonight I'm going to play some LUNAR for a bit and maybe catch the newest episode of Star Trek: Picard. Admittedly, I'm a pretty hardcore Trekkie. I have been since I was a kid and it's comfort food television for me. Sometimes I leave it on when I fall asleep just because it's generally comforting to me.
If you don't have a rice cooker at home well I don't know what to tell ya. Cooking it on the stove is definitely harder. And more prone to burning. But some people like the burnt rice on the bottom.
Oh yeah, I only use the rice cooker. I quite using the stovetop probably 20 years ago. I also quit using any instant rice. It's just cheaper and tastier to buy rice by the bag and just cook it up yourself. 20 minutes and you're good to go, and I'll cook a veggie stirfry or something during that time. We always keep a big bag of basmati or jasmine rice, and then I keep a small bag of Japanese nishiki rice on hand for my sushi. I'm still an amateur on the rice front (and probably always will be), but at least I'm better at it than my wife! Hahaha!
I actually have a really sensitive stomach. Some fried foods just make me super sick to my stomach. We eat out, but it's not uncommon for me to end up with a stomach ache. Heavily processed foods do it, too. Rice is one of those foods that's just really easy on my stomach, so I would absolutely eat it every day if my wife was down. I do like to make a huge helping sometimes and will make lunch portions for the week. I like to eat white rice with a little cup of miso soup or something simple like that.
My favorite season is probably Season 6 - The Amazon.
I know I saw this season, but they all sort of run together in my head at this point. Somehow my parents have a two-degrees-of-separation from one of the producers. I feel like it's David Burris, but I can't recall. When I was in college I was thinking about going to Hollywood to try and become a screenwriter, and my parents were trying to connect me with him to try and become a PA. I can't remember exactly why I never got in touch with him, but there are some days I regret not going for it.
As for the chickens, you got some pretty ones there! We have a little white one like that (some kind of brahma bantam with feathers on her feet). Her name is Merigold and she's our favorite. She's the sweetest of our chickens. Because she's so small, she tends to be picked on and doesn't like to sleep in the coop with her "sisters" -- she can sort of fly, so she'll fly up and sleep in tree branches, haha... For about six months I would take a latter and get her down every night, but I've since given up on her. If she wants to sleep in a tree, well, I'm going to let her sleep in a tree!
:D
Now, on to the gaming!
Zaback Mines
Alright, I'm fighting through the mines and moving on! This is a level I don't care much for; it's just so large and maze-like and there are a lot of enemies!
Zaback
This town reminds me of Reza from SSSC. I wonder if it's the same town, just a thousands years in the future? At this point I can't really tell by the world map how it corresponds with the lands from the first game, so no telling...
Regardless, what a sad town. A lot of the cities in this game are obviously sort of sad, but this one is probably the saddest. Not just with the class divides, but some of the stories are heartbreaking. The lady who drinks at the bar every day because her son went to live in Neo-Vane at her urging and doesn't come back anymore... The schoolteacher that didn't know magic and was forced to work in the mines... The poor family that has a son about to sit for the magic test...
I've upgraded my gear (mostly) and will probably go back into the mines to grind tomorrow. But for now, I'm officially done and headed to bed. See ya, homie!
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Hey, Boo! How are you? Just wondering where you are lol?
So I figured you'd be busy for a couple of days which's why you haven't posted. Don't worry though I don't plan on moving too far ahead. I've actually just finished talking to everyone in Zaback and I'm in front of the teleporter to Neo-Vane. I've forgotten what exactly happens at this point; I think the party gets separated as Ronfar & Lemina have magical power and pass the Trial while Hiro and Jean are forcedly dumped into a dungeon. I'll have to make sure to only buy equips for Hiro & Jean then.
So I was musing to myself about all the residents in Zaback and was laughing at some of the text. So as we mentioned before we're both former stoners so I guess you're familiar when you're all talking and someone says something to "harshen the mellow" or is basically a downer or a buzzkill of some sort. I like to keep things light personally but some of the text in the game I've noticed is almost pretty negative... like how they have neighbors spying on one another and gossiping and wishing ill upon the other. I myself don't really like that. Sometimes I like to keep things "up" and just stay positive and happy all the time.
If I don't hear from ya, I'll probably use the transporter to Neo-Vane and see what happens from there!! Thanks a lot, Boo--stay safe and take all the time in the world you need to take care of your shit!! Bye, man. :D
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Hey, Boo! We sorta cross-posted and posted at the same time, lol. Oh, I've always wanted to get into Star Trek but it seemed already on-going when I was a kid so I figured it wasn't worth catching up to it. I kinda regret that today since the fandom seems so big. I always thought Seven of 9 was pretty hot when I was a little kid, though.
Lol. The rice. My Indian friends and I have a little inside-joke about it since it's always around in our lives we call it "rices." Lmao. Maybe we're the only ones that think it's funny? Anyway. I made some sushi / kimbap today. I didn't really use Japanese rice I figured any rice you like the most would suit just fine... and I made like a tuna w/ mayo one with cucumbers and carrots. I made like two big ones and I lathered the outside with sesame oil. It's more of a kimbap I think that way. I'm gonna try to make more tomorrow thinking of other toppings probably gonna make one with scrambled eggs.
Ooh. In High School, I used to think I had IBS or something. But I think now I just don't think about it anymore and the problem goes away. My only stomach problem I have now is because through dieting I have a really small stomach! My eyes want to eat so much but I can only fit in a small serving of rice and a small bit of "ulam" (in Tagalog it's the meat or main dish that accompanies the rice). I never have dessert except for a piece of fruit usually a banana or mangoes are a'plenty here. I just have to work on my mid-section now because I sit down a lot and I'll be good I've been keeping up my daily walk and I do sit-ups and whatever calisthenics I can fit in at nighttime before bed. :thumbsup: It's great being old! lol :)
Ooh. That you know David Burris. Yeah he was like an Executive Producer for the show for a number of seasons/years of the show but I dunno if they show him in the end-credits anymore. That's pretty spiffy! Right now, I'm watching the First Eight Seasons cause I think they're the hey-day of Survivor and I'm on Season 2 right now - The Australian Outback. I enjoy just re-watching the show cause I enjoy just seeing heads talking. Nowadays the show's really interested in showing a lot of "woke" types of people like there's a new rule that 50% of the cast has to be minorities - before it used to just be all-white people and no one complained, and they have a lot of like trans contestants now. I mean, don't get me wrong it's good to know about those types of people but I guess I miss the early days of the show a lot cause it's what I watched growing up. Seeing a lot of Southern, farming-type people on the show is really normal for me. :thumbsup:
Ok, onto the game ... I really don't like the mines so I don't want to grind in there. I was thinking about just upgrading Hiro & Jean's equipment only and just stepping onto the transporter to see what happens. I'm pretty sure those two, and only those two get dropped down into a dungeon of some sort. I try to pop in LUNAR everyday but I'll keep in mind we both like to take it reaaaalllyyy sloooooowwwww... LUNAR 2 is like a slow-burn. lol
Lol. Anyways. Have a good one, Boo and take it easy!!! :D Btw I'm playing Yakuza Kiwami 1 for PS4 right now.
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I'll keep in mind we both like to take it reaaaalllyyy sloooooowwwww... LUNAR 2 is like a slow-burn. lol
I would rather go through the game faster. Normally I'd put in like 2 hours a day if I could. This is just my life now -- I work 50 or 60 hours a week and then have parental duties on top of it, so I have very little time for hobbies or fun. Like I said, LUNAR is about 85% of my gaming right now, lol... I also had more time to play during the first few weeks of the year because I was still WAH most days due to the holidays, and my kids sports were all temporarily on hold. Alas! If I could drive this train a bit faster, I definitely would! This week has been particularly tough just because of everything going on IRL, so my apologies for being MIA a bit.
Ooh. That you know David Burris. Yeah he was like an Executive Producer for the show for a number of seasons/years of the show but I dunno if they show him in the end-credits anymore.
I'm not sure if it's him or not, but I'm pretty sure whoever it was is no longer working on the show. This guy had worked on several other reality shows. I actually called and chatted with her tonight for about 30 minutes, and I meant to ask her who it was. I don't think she would remember either, as it was a friend-of-a-friend type of situation, but I'm sure she could work backwards. Now I'm really curious!
... I like to keep things light personally but some of the text in the game I've noticed is almost pretty negative... like how they have neighbors spying on one another and gossiping and wishing ill upon the other. I myself don't really like that. Sometimes I like to keep things "up" and just stay positive and happy all the time.
I feel you. I think much of it is just reflective to the fact that Althena's religion has been corrupted and the Chosen are driving everyone against each other. Of course, there are parallels there in the real world, as we're often driven against each other by political opinion or religion or the color of our skin. But yeah, this game really hits you over the head with those themes and every town feels pretty worse off. Rather than most jRPGs where every town is just an isolated place without overlap, and any struggles are external (ie, "the mines are overrun with monsters and we can't get the ores we need").
Anyway, I've spent some time in the mines leveling a bit and have moved on to...
Neo-Vane
It's just as you said, Ronfar and Jean are separated from the rest. I could see Jean not having any magical ability, but clearly Ronfar does -- his healing magic is top-notch. Their tests are bull.
I explored the city, talked to the NPCs, and don't have silver to upgrade my gear since I used it all up in Zaback. Dangit.
Down in the caves, I rescued Ronfar and Jean, leveled a bit, and got to the purple laser gate/portal. I actually healed up and used some Star Light expecting a boss, but... nope. Into the dungeon of the Neo-Vane palace, right where there's a statue of Althena. Dangit!
I confronted Borgan and actually sort of like his design once you can look past his ugly mug. His battle sprites are pretty cool -- he's standing on the floating disc with the three magic dragon skull looking things. And then when defeating him it was hilarious watching him fall off his little floating-thing.
It's pretty cool seeing Lemina grow and change. She's come a long way in a pretty short amount of time. Although I agree with her sparing Borgen and sort of forcing him to help rebuild the Magic Guild, I am still frustrated at the redemption of these villains. Lunn and Borgen both are murderous villains who get a slap on the wrist and there's no accountability or repercussions. I am glad they are redeemed and see the error of their ways, I just wish there was a bit more to it.
Anyway, Neo-Vane is saved (thanks, Lucia!) and tomorrow I'll head to the Black Dragon Cave.
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Hi, Boo! I got some time to play tonight (I've been re-watching Survivor all day, as usual :p) I actually like the Trial Cave and want to grind a little bit in here as Lemina's Freeze Claw just wipes out enemies and their EXP/Silver is I think pretty good for this portion of the game. I made it to the purple forcefield and stopped. I always try to save first and then heal because an Althena's Statue could always pop up anywhere. :p I should let you take the lead in this game. :p
Anyway, in terms of higher philosophy--I'm loving that I'm taking the game slow this time!!!! We're definitely the same in that if there's a game I'm playing I'll pour as many hours I can in a day in order to beat it. I'm just learning so much more about the story now that I'm not speedreading and a lot of the townspeople's lines linger in my head if I stay in one place for a couple of days.
Yeah I thought it was weird Ronfar's healing isn't really considered "magic" I guess it comes from within him from his teachings as a priest and doesn't really come from Althena herself, although he did try to use the Statue to lift Lucia's curse in the beginning of the game so I dunno what gives? Jean's skills seem more nature-inspired like she summons butterflies and such and even yells out "Gypsy magic!" So I think it's more earth-inspired. I thought it was odd that Hiro passed the trial with his um wind magic? lololol I almost never use it aside from the Boomerang when an enemy is strong against physical attacks. :shrug: Oh well.
I'm really enjoying the game so far. It really is kinda grind-ey, like you have to go out of your way to earn Silver if you minimally just want to get better equips. Usually Working Designs designs their games to be difficult and I guess they want the player to grind in this one. LUNAR 2 really does have a lot of text so I guess they want you to earn it.
I was gonna say Zaback reminds me kinda of Ruid? In that they mine til their hands bleed. A lot of the lines in this part of the game had me laughing like the kid that made an adult chant something, ...and he turned himself into a pig? LOL. That had me laughing.
Anyway. Not much going on for me at the farm. Just hot, sleepy days. Dogs are doing good. I need to buy some more stuff cause I just have money to blow and I want to get essential items. I bought floor polish? lol Can't wait til that's delivered. I had to stop the fun early cause I usually meditate and re-hydrate & work out a little bit 1.5-2 hr. before I go to sleep. I'm really enjoying my routine nowadays I'm a creature of habit so. Hope you're having fun and doing well, Boo! Hopefully we'll get a chunky bit done soon!! :D
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Hey man!
Having defeated Borgen, I went back to the Zaback Mines to meet with the Black Dragon.
Black Dragon Cave
I really love the tileset for this dungeon. The dark crystal walls just look cool. Unrelated, but I also realized I never updated my team with what I bought in Neo-Vane. Whoops! All that amethyst gear just sat there. I finally equipped everyone.
Fun fact: I've kept the Thieves' Staff on Lemina in the hops of getting some good loot. I've gotten a few items as a result. Gwah ha ha!
I like that you can still find daggers in this game. I picked up a Star Dagger in this dungeon. I'm not using them, but it's nice to get the extra attack and have that as an option.
Thinking about the game and locations, the Black Dragon was previously encountered in Pao in SSSC. That was, if I remember correctly, in the far upper right corner of the world map. In this game, the Black Dragon Cave is in the lower left corner of the world map. I'm trying to remember if the Black Dragon encountered in SSSC (which I believe was already brainwashed by Ghaleon and was a major boss battle for the men's team), so perhaps the Black Dragon always lived here and was taken up there by Ghaleon...? If not, perhaps the dragon moved here after the events of SSSC. After all, these likely aren't the same dragons we met in SSSC and are instead their offpspring -- we know in LUNAR: Dragon Song (what a horrible game) that the dragon can and do die regularly and just have offspring like Quark->Nall and the Red Dragon->Ruby.
Speaking of, man, what if we played through Dragon Song at some point? I own it but never beat it, as the combat was so incredibly frustrating that I quit. But if I play a modded version via emulation, I may be able to forego some of those pains and just be able to enjoy the story.
Just a thought!
Anyway, this dungeon is incredibly long and I saved when I got to the bottom and before the next story events. I'm really tempted to Litany back to the surface next time I play, heal, and head back down for the EXP and Silver.
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Hello. Boo-man.
Been raining all day here at the farm so I've stayed relatively indoors all dang day. It's cold right now, and I have the electric fan on. Brr. So I got some gameplaying done. I beat Borgan. I wanted to wish you congratulations on beating Borgan since amongst LUNAR circles he's actually recognized as a really tough boss battle (esp in the SCD version). I myself had no trouble cause I always build myself up for that one fight. I think I'm overleveled. Yeah, his design is good. Awe. I actually felt bad when he toppled over his floating pedestal I imagined a large person toppling their electric wheelchair, or something. :(
So got the Black Dragon Aura and was gonna go directly to the door, but I talked to everyone in Neo-Vane and Zaback since all their lines change. I saved in front of the door in the Zaback Mine. I'll head inside tomorrow. I did get all the equips though. C:
I did notice some things. Notes:
-The Rock Biter scorpion enemy seemed like a nod to The NeverEnding Story there was a character called Rock Biter who was made of all rocks. That's so 90s. I imagine every kid our age growing up loved that movie. It's one of the five movies in my collection, I know I have definitely.
-They talk a lot about not discriminating. That's so 90s. I remember in elementary school growing up the teachers were all about teaching diversity and that our differences are what makes us unique and we should learn to share our culture or where we come from together. The whole "melting pot" thing in US Social Studies.
-I don't know if you've noticed but the Item Shops sell equips too like rings and crests. I was eyeing the Magic Eye Crest that increases wisdom and equipped it on Lemina.
-I forgot to say it before but thank GOD you get the Blue Dragon Crest for Blue Dragon Healing it's 60mp a pop so I figured it should rightfully go to Lemina as she's the only one who can cast it without taking too much of a hit to her MP. It's pretty useful should Ronfar die or become paralyzed/mute in a boss battle. C:
-I was rather disappointed in the Blue Fiend. The White Fiend has to be my all-time favorite as it has an extra arm coming out of it's stomach. :lol: I guess they're supposed to be mutants?
-As far as the Black Dragon goes I THINK when it went crazy it flew to the top of the tower near Pao and you fight it there?
-I'm so jealous you actually found stuff to steal. Usually I clean battles without Lemina having an opportunity to attack, but when she does it says nothing to steal... Didja get anything good?
Anyway. That's all for tonight. I hope you're having a great one, Boo!!! :D
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Been raining all day here at the farm so I've stayed relatively indoors all dang day.
I love rainy days when I can just rest up, relax, and listen to the rain outside the window. Those days are few and far between (or when they do happen they aren't relaxing because of kids and responsibilities), but I do enjoy them.
-The Rock Biter scorpion enemy seemed like a nod to The NeverEnding Story there was a character called Rock Biter who was made of all rocks. That's so 90s. I imagine every kid our age growing up loved that movie. It's one of the five movies in my collection, I know I have definitely.
Dude, I love 1980s fantasy movies. Legend, Labyrinth, and of course The Neverending Story (but only the first one; the rest of them were sort of rubbish). I actually used to have a punk band in high school called "The Falkor Alliance" named after the best luck dragon this side of the Swamps of Sadness! But yeah, it's an excellent movie. I quote it from time to time: "such strong hands..." and "say my name!" both come to mind.
-I don't know if you've noticed but the Item Shops sell equips too like rings and crests. I was eyeing the Magic Eye Crest that increases wisdom and equipped it on Lemina.
Yeah, I've tried to buy one of each item in the game. Every crest is like 3k Silver, which is one of the reasons I have to grind for cash every new town, haha!
-I forgot to say it before but thank GOD you get the Blue Dragon Crest for Blue Dragon Healing it's 60mp a pop so I figured it should rightfully go to Lemina as she's the only one who can cast it without taking too much of a hit to her MP. It's pretty useful should Ronfar die or become paralyzed/mute in a boss battle. C:
I did the same for the same reasons!
I'm so jealous you actually found stuff to steal. Usually I clean battles without Lemina having an opportunity to attack, but when she does it says nothing to steal... Didja get anything good?
The steal rate is abysmally low, so I'm not convinced it's worth it at all - especially now that Lemina has access to staffs and staves with group attack options. Probably the best I got was one Shiro Crest from the White Dragon Cave. I've gotten a few other items, but it's mostly herbs and generally non-valuable stuff. Regardless, it's fun to attempt!
As for gaming tonight, I'm already done and only spent about 20 minutes grinding in the Black Dragon Cave. I went back to the surface, healed up, and started descending again. This is the longest dungeon in the game so far (or at least it feels that way), and there are a lot of enemies, so the going is slow. I'm almost back to the end but not quite, and I've called it quits.
I have to go help my daughter with some last minute studying for a report she is giving tomorrow, plus we have to prep some food for the report. She's presenting a country report on Poland, so we are making pierogi. I'll be up at 4:00am to throw them into the oven (normally when we cook them I like to fry them in some butter with thinly sliced onions), but tomorrow is lazy cooking.
Enjoy the weather (assuming it doesn't impact any real-life responsibilities with the farm) and have a good one! I'll catch you tomorrow!
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Hey, Boo! I played LUNAR 2 all-day today. I went ahead and beat the Black Dragon Fiend cause I thought for sure you'd beat him today. Oh well.
Since I'm a little ahead of you I might take a day-off tomorrow and go back to previous towns to see if there're any line changes. I figured since you lost control of the Destiny, then regain it.
Yes I love rainy days. Growing up in San Francisco many a days I'd walk home from school soaking wet or I'd wait for the bus in the cold rain. I grew to like it. I don't really like to admit it often since it seems sort of sad? lol
Oh, I liked the first NeverEnding Story for sure. Bar none, untouchable. I kinda liked the sequel cause of how awful it is? Sophomore slump I guess? I've never seen the third one, and I'd love to get my hands on it for sure!!! I think I saw it at Suncoast one time and begged my Mom to get it but she didn't.
Oh I finally got Lemina to steal. Just a Star Light and some Healing Nuts. Star Lights are 2,000s a pop so I was pretty excited to get one! I was gonna say I'm glad they fixed the gimpy mage attack in this game cause I remember, Mia was so useless with her cane physically attacking in the first game she's tucked away in the corner, has only 1 attack, short range and can barely dent an enemy. It seems a little jarring when Lemina attacks with her staffs but I think it's more of a fix-if anything else.
You know Boo sometimes I look forward to reading your daily life updates rather than game talk. Ooh. Pierogis? Aren't those like dumplings? I might have to look them up on YouTube. I remember I had an English teacher in Catholic school who was Polish and she talked about Poland and being Polish all the time. @_@ I'll always remember her. She would talk about Christian radio all the time and she was obsessed with Princess Diana and the Matthew Shepherd stories on the news. Whoo, 1996!
Again, nothing much going on here. It went back to 90° today so another sleepy, hot day on the farm. I woke up a little later than usual. I do a lot of re-hydrating in my room cause I always feel so dehydrated and lightheaded all the time the heat just zaps me! I always have at least 6 iced bottled waters surrounding me and I have like 2 other varieties of drinks! Grocery stores don't really sell juice here so I have to opt for hot chocolate or something! I'm just gonna do a little online shopping before I work out, and go to bed. I'm thinking about buying some flower seeds cause the housestaff wants something to do. I think my Mom really likes red roses so I'll probably get that. I'm on a huge Survivor binge so I'm all cracked out about getting survival necessities. I went and ordered a whole bunch of beans for my foods staples. I don't like black beans. And I figured you can't go wrong with pinto, so. I kinda wanna try to make arroz con gandules rice & beans. Of course I got some Hunt's baked beans also. I've been really craving beans lately for some reason.
Ah well! It was nice talking to you Boo as usual!!!! Hope you have a great one! :D
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Hey, Boo! I played LUNAR 2 all-day today. I went ahead and beat the Black Dragon Fiend cause I thought for sure you'd beat him today. Oh well.
Black Dragon Cave / Zaback Mines
You're in luck, because I've beat the Black Fiend boss and moved on a little! I really liked the design of this boss. It's sort of insect-like and looks cool with the armor and black sheen. Probably one of the coolest enemy designs in this game.
I also really like the cubic, metallic crystal that serves as an elevator for the dragon's room.
I talked to everyone back in Zaback and slowly worked by way back to the Dragonship Destiny. This part of the game has some poor design, though. If you use Litany to escape the Black Dragon Cave, it just puts you at the entrance / the door in the Zaback Mines. You have to use the Litany spell a second time to get to the exit of the mines...
...which puts you back at Zaback. I then realized I have to go ALL THE WAY back through the mines to get back to the Dragonship Destiny. You can't simply exit the north end of town to go back to your ship...
...Unless I'm missing something. Regardless, a bit frustrating, I won't lie. I spent nearly all of my time today just battling my way back to the ship.
Anyway, I moved on to Raculi.
Raculi
This is one of my favorite towns in the game, and not just because it's the birthplace of Mauri, Ronfar, and Leo. I just like the look and feel, and it's one of the few towns where people aren't trying to tear each other apart. Something about this town reminds of my Final Fantasy VI, particularly the towns of Nikeah or Mobliz or Kohlingen. There's one town in particular, I can't remember which one it was. I think it's the town where you first meet Celes.
Anyway, this is where I stop gaming for tonight and just move onto to chatting mode!
Oh, I liked the first NeverEnding Story for sure. Bar none, untouchable. I kinda liked the sequel cause of how awful it is? Sophomore slump I guess? I've never seen the third one, and I'd love to get my hands on it for sure!!! I think I saw it at Suncoast one time and begged my Mom to get it but she didn't.
The second one isn't horrible, but it definitely doesn't hold a candle to the first one. Although I remember Sebastian climbing the giant hand to get some kind of magic item and the visuals were super cool.
The third one is probably the worst of the three -- it was direct to VHS back in the 1990s. Like the second one, they had a completely different cast (although a young Jack Black is the villainous high school bully). Falkor, the Childlike Empress, and one or two other characters come from the magic world into our world.
I think I saw it at Suncoast one time and begged my Mom to get it but she didn't.
I completely forgot about Suncoast! Dang, that one of my favorite stores at the mall. When I got into indie music, a lot of it couldn't be found normally, but they were always really good about ordering my specialty CDs. There's this trippy Icelandic band what was called "mum" and I remember Suncoast was the ONLY place that would get the CD for me.
Ooh. Pierogis? Aren't those like dumplings?
Yes! We're not Polish, but somewhere along the way we discovered them and keep frozen ones kept in the freezer. They're just dumplings with mashed potatoes in them, although some have other ingredients: cheese, sourkraut, onion, garlic, etc. There are all kinds of different flavors. They're pretty versatile, too -- you can boil them, steam them, pan fry them, bake them, etc. There's also a lot of different sauces you can pair them with -- they're pretty versatile and can be eaten with sour cream, salsa, whatever. We generally eat them plain with a little salt, or on rare occasions (when I'm willing to eat unhealthily), sauteed in a cast iron skillet with butter.
So it all worked out that we had them here at the house, and they just happened to be a Polish food!
I do a lot of re-hydrating in my room cause I always feel so dehydrated and lightheaded all the time the heat just zaps me! I always have at least 6 iced bottled waters surrounding me and I have like 2 other varieties of drinks!
Okay, question about the Philippines. What's the ice situation like there? Do they use ice in drinks a lot? I know in some countries they don't use ice very much. I encountered that both in Japan and Europe. The water was cold, but they rarely served drinks with ice unless asked.
I'm a ice fiend. I fill my glass up with ice to the brim, and I like my drinks just above freezing temperature, haha... They say room temp water is better for you than bitter cold water (at least when it comes to drinking), but I'll keep my ice cold drinks.
I'm thinking about buying some flower seeds cause the housestaff wants something to do. I think my Mom really likes red roses so I'll probably get that.
Oh nice! That's thoughtful of ya. I'm not sure if I talked about it before, but we have a huge veggie garden here: corn, peppers, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, potatoes, watermelon, etc. It's winter here and I didn't have time to plant any cold-weather crops, but I'm thinking of skipping the vegetable garden this year. It's just too much work and I don't get much help from my wife and kids, hahaha... Now that I'm no longer WAH and go into the office a lot, I just don't have the time and energy for it. So instead of a vegetable garden I think I'm going to go ahead and still till the land, and just do a flower garden instead. Probably do a variety of wildflowers, but I want to do something that will draw in butterflies and bees. Not quite a butterfly garden, but something close.
Anyway, I have a job interview in 5 minutes, so I'm going to bounce. I'll tell you more about that tomorrow. Cross your fingers for me!
I'm on a huge Survivor binge so I'm all cracked out about getting survival necessities. I went and ordered a whole bunch of beans for my foods staples. I don't like black beans. And I figured you can't go wrong with pinto, so. I kinda wanna try to make arroz con gandules rice & beans. Of course I got some Hunt's baked beans also. I've been really craving beans lately for some reason.
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Oop- Boo, I just took a day off today I didn't fire up LUNAR 2 at all! :sweatdrop: I'm planning a huge gaming week starting tomorrow though where I'll stay up well into the night and maybe enjoy some beer and hard liquor. I usually try to do this just once a month cause I feel so serious and stiff in my normal life most of the time I need to take the time out to just enjoy being a guy! I'm playing Yakuza Kiwami right now and it's mostly older Japanese guys with a lot of cinematic talking and shooting the shit and drinking and it makes me wanna do the same. The game makes me feel like I'm in Asia and since I'm actually right here in the Philippines right now I thought hey might as well get into the feel of things and enjoy myself! I'll also be planning on playing LUNAR 2, of course, so whether you want to do a chunky bit or just keep going at it slow I'm right there with you, man! C:
Ooh. I love Final Fantasy VI. Are you excited about the Final Fantasy I-VI Pixel Remaster? I'm thinking about picking it up if I can I heard it's pretty hard to snatch a pre-order since they're all gone!! Yeah, I re-play VI a lot but I kinda wanna re-play IV since I haven't in a really long time. My first girlfriend in elementary school's older brother let me borrow his copy to play for the first time, so that game is kinda special to me.
I remember the second one had a scene where Bastian was on the high dive in swimming class and he was wearing speedos and looking all afraid. It made me think about how us Americans aren't really into wearing speedos and it's more of an international thing, so I always wondered why they had him wearing one!? I'm still pretty curious about the third movie.
Lol, I used to go to the mall by myself a lot as a young kid so I remember all the stores! My favorite at the food court was Sbarro. :p But yeah, Suncoast usually had a lot of anime on VHS so I would visit quite often. I remember snagging Magic Knight RayEarth and Slayers! there before. They had some other good stuff as well! Kinda reminds me of Tower Records a little bit!
Ooh. I like dumplings like I just love Japanese gyoza. Even Chinese potstickers. I remember my Mom would just buy a bag of frozen potstickers from Costco and she'd make a whole batch. Twas so good. I'll check out pierogis though. I don't eat much European food but might as well try to expand my horizons right now! I'm willing to try new foods all the time. Kinda reminds me of ravioli how you described baking them in the oven.
Uhh. My Dad usually says not to ask for ice at restaurants here cause you don't know if the water they used is from the tap or filtered, so when I order a soda I usually just drink it out of the can but it's usually from a refrigerator and it's cold. At home I literally stuff the freezer full of large water bottles so they're frozen for me when I wake up the next day. And I'll have iced bottles to last me the whole day. I drink a lot of water I always have ever since HS I always have a frog in my throat, and I easily get lightheaded here and I've found out drinking iced water helps, A LOT. It's a frozen bottle of water and I wait to let it melt a little bit and I pour room temp. water in it and shake it up so it's nice and chilly. It gives me a brainfreeze but takes my headache away at the same time. I also down at least 2 bottles of water before I go to bed cause I wake up just dehydrated every single morning. I always start my day drinking a bottle of water instead of coffee.
I'm strategizing how to do my own vegetable garden here. I just have to figure out how to till the soil etc. Or just make a box lifted off the ground. I think locals said tomatoes, onions, okra, eggplant and one other thing grows really well in the ground here in the Philippines. Obviously we're not hardpressed to find these exact veggies at the local market but I think it's just cool to grow it yourself. Plus it gives me something to do and I can learn as I go along.
Tomorrow I'll be fully-ready to tackle the game with ya, Boo!! :D I'll be waiting with a bottle in hand! You ever tip back a cocktail at night on occassion?
(Oops. You mentioned playing Dragon Song. I ACTUALLY DON'T HAVE THAT GAME. :sweatdrop: So I dunno how I can get my hands on it if not emulation. I usually try not to emulate though, I vastly prefer forking over the fundage for my games it makes me feel better. :p We'll see!!)
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Oop- Boo, I just took a day off today I didn't fire up LUNAR 2 at all!
That's okay! I'm actually taking the day off, myself. I've just gotten home and it's after 8:30pm -- I left the house at 6:00pm, so it's been a very long day! But I figured I'd come here and socialize for a few minutes rather than play. Tomorrow should be a good gaming session, as I don't have to go into the office on Friday.
Are you excited about the Final Fantasy I-VI Pixel Remaster? I'm thinking about picking it up if I can I heard it's pretty hard to snatch a pre-order since they're all gone!! Yeah, I re-play VI a lot but I kinda wanna re-play IV since I haven't in a really long time.
Yeah, I last replayed it in like 2007 or 2008, so it's been a long while. I do love the game, though. I just really like the Final Fantasy series. Out of all the jRPGs, I feel like the Final Fantasy series is just the best balanced overall: good music, good story, good graphics, and the pacing and story length is pretty perfect. Final Fantasy VI is definitely a great one -- Locke and Setzer are two of my favorite characters from the game.
Lol, I used to go to the mall by myself a lot as a young kid so I remember all the stores! My favorite at the food court was Sbarro. :p But yeah, Suncoast usually had a lot of anime on VHS so I would visit quite often. I remember snagging Magic Knight RayEarth and Slayers! there before. They had some other good stuff as well! Kinda reminds me of Tower Records a little bit!
YES! It's where I got my anime start, too. Vampire Hunter D and Escaflowne were two early ones for me. I also remember buying a Cowboy Bebop VHS that had three or four episodes on it, and it's one of the few items I've kept from my teenage years.
The mall was awesome, though. I feel like they've been on the decline here in the US over the past decade or two. We hardly go, and it's never an exciting or fun experience.
I have a soft spot for mall food courts: Sbarro, like you said (gotta love NY style pizza), plus food court Chinese food. I dunno what it is about crappy mall Chinese food, but I love it: the bourbon teriyaki chicken, the fried rice... delicious and it pales in comparison to the real thing, but there's just something about it. Maybe it's just nostalgia, because where I grew up it was the only place to get Chinese food for a long time.
Ooh. I like dumplings like I just love Japanese gyoza. Even Chinese potstickers. I remember my Mom would just buy a bag of frozen potstickers from Costco and she'd make a whole batch. Twas so good. I'll check out pierogis though. I don't eat much European food but might as well try to expand my horizons right now! I'm willing to try new foods all the time. Kinda reminds me of ravioli how you described baking them in the oven.
Gyoza are amazing. I buy them from the local Asian supermarket and cook them up at home in a castiron skillet, complete with the crunchy bottom from the sesame oil. I haven't tried to make homemade dumplings, but I'd like to one day. When I visited Japan a few years back, I tried dumplings and karaage at pretty much every place, and even at some places that literally only served gyoza. I'll have to find some pictures, because I have a few that are just hilarious with me sitting with dozens of different kinds of gyoza.
On the topics of ice and your dad and family, I think it's awesome ya'll are there and supporting the local community. It sounds like you all get to employ quite a few people, between housekeepers and workers on the chicken farm. I'd love to do something like that.
One of my buddies Suneel is from rural India, and his parents operate a large farm that employs like 1/3 of the village. They break even and it's moreso all about keeping the village steadily employed. Suneel told me that he would never take his father's farm when his dad retires, as he wouldn't be able to simply run it - he's have to maximize profit and he'd end up ruining his dad's legacy. I admire him for being that upfront and honest about himself, though.
Tomorrow I'll be fully-ready to tackle the game with ya, Boo!! :D I'll be waiting with a bottle in hand! You ever tip back a cocktail at night on occassion?
Damn straight, I do! I made margarita's on Monday night when we made taco's. I go all out and fry the tortillas, and I make guacamole and pico. It's one of our favorite meals and reheats really well.
I'm generally a liquor buy more than beer, although I do like beer. I really like amber and dark beers. My absolute favorite is a nice porter stout, but one of those is like eating a whole loaf of bread, so I drink one and I'm stuffed, haha... But on the liquor front, I do like rum and whiskey the most. I can't do vodka anymore -- too many memories of getting sick back in college.
Two weeks ago I bought a bottle of Crown, and it was the limited edition apple-flavored one. I normally don't do fruity drinks, but my boss told me that if you mix it and Mountain Dew it tastes like a green Jolly Rancher, so I thought I'd try it. My wife and I ended up mixing up a lot of different concoctions with it and drank half the bottle, and we got quite sloshed, haha. We don't do that often just due to having kids, but it's definitely fun to just get your drink on and let loose.
I haven't been able to do it much the past year or two (since I've been going into the office a lot), but I love to just take two or three shots and then play video games all night while sipping on rum and coke. The shots get me tipsy out of the gate, and then I just keep myself going without getting too drunk. I played through all three Dragon Age games back in like 2015, and I don't think I ever played them sober, hahaha!
Anyway, I'm going to stop here. I have to go help my daughter with her math homework and help her study, and I need to grab a small bite to eat since I haven't gotten to eat dinner. Hang in there homie!
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Lol, hey Boo! I just rolled out of bed where I was working up the nerve to come here and post thinking gosh what am I gonna say? I'm really glad to hear you took a day off cause I feel like I just took a day off from reality!
I started on the beers about right before dinner, I asked one of the boys on the farm to pick me up like 6 bottles cause I figured hey a six-pack. I got around to the fourth beer and boy did I start to feel sloshy the whole day is kind of a blur to be honest. I know I played some Yakuza and I watched Survivor but boy the beer hit me a little way different today than it usually does. So I was actually a bit of an alcoholic or I just loved to get wasted in my late-teens/early-twenties. Like my friends and I would always be drinking and smoking every night. I got my act together pretty much when I moved here to the Philippines and I quit the marijuana for good and stopped drinking myself to death. Now I just maybe take a day off a month to just toss back a beer and take a break from my regular daily routine-living. Boy, it sure does feel good!
I didn't feel necessarily drunk per se like I know when I am but my thoughts were just elsewhere kinda like they were playing with my friends who might be thinking about me. After one of the episodes on my Survivor DVD skipped, I sorta just crawled in bed and decided to meditate and just relax. It feels really good to not have to think about things I need to get, or just the usual strategizing I always do like planning for the future. I sorta feel like that right now just sorta in a haze or in a daydream... I feel almost more high than I do drunk!
LOL. I'm really surprised you drink so often. I feel a sort of guilt when I drink just because it reminds me of the rock-bottom in my life, and plus I'm on a weightloss journey and the empty calories. But that drink today really felt good. I took a double-shower cause it's so hot here. I'm just in my house chillin' with one dog while the other one's guarding the outside. Sometimes I think what the heck am I doing here and you talking about it really helps put it in perspective that hey I'm just doing nothing but living my life. And I'm happy now. Much more than when I was living back home.
I doubt this farm is ever gonna reach largescale porportions it's really more like my parents' retirement house I just moved in and kicked them out. :p lol Yeah, they definitely instill it in me to hire people that are stuggling with a family or on those lines. I was talking to them today and it's nice to speak to people who aren't my relatives and aren't the friends I grew up with I'd get wasted with. They kinda know I'm kinda like random so I hope they think I'm at least funny.
Anyway. I'm so in a haze I don't even know what I'm talking about anymore. If only you could hear my thoughts throughout the day, Boo lol. I might just stay up a little longer and continue meditating while I'm in this crazy but mellow state of mind and maybe I'll drift off to sleep... or not. Sometimes I wonder if our existance's thoughts are bound to our physical plane cause my thoughts are sky-high right now! I just feel so happy to be here, and to... still be alive, and to just have a good thing going for me right now. I can't express how happy I am in words man. I wish the same happiness for everyone in the world.
I'll probably read this back tmmr. and think what the heck?? Take care, Boo!
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Man, sounds like you're in a good mental state! :D
The world should be more like that. Everyone needs to slow the heck down (myself included) and be more in the moment. I have some mild ADD, so sitting can be hard for me, but I really should take up meditation. I've tried before but never been able to make it stick as a habit.
As for drinking, I'm generally not a heavy drinker despite how I made it sound. Since the beginning of the year, I've probably had beer twice with meals (at our favorite local pizza pub), there was the one night my wife and I tried the Crown Royale, and then the homemade margarita's earlier this week. Luckily, I've always been really good about recognizing healthy limits and moderation. Even when I smoked weed (and sometimes cigarettes), it was never a regular thing and was moreso something I did maybe once every few weeks at most. I did do shrooms a few times, but that was extremely rare, and I never had any interest to try any other illegal substances.
Actually, alcoholism and substance abuse runs in my family, and somehow that gene seems to have skipped me. At this point in my life, like you, I try to put a lot of effort into my mental and physical health. I'm pretty self-aware when it comes to destructive habits and have luckily avoided most of them... although unhealthy food like pizza and burgers are still a vice that I am highly cognizant of. I have to watch that cholesterol and blood pressure!
Sometimes I think what the heck am I doing here and you talking about it really helps put it in perspective that hey I'm just doing nothing but living my life. And I'm happy now. Much more than when I was living back home.
Yeah man, life is meant to be lived and self-love and health are paramount. No one else can determine how you should live your life, so you just keep doing you, man. To me your life sounds awesome. Lots of room for hobbies and fun projects and you don't have to stress too much about the grind. Just make sure you've got a stable community of people around you -- good people to catch you if you fall or for things get tough. I know I struggle to have that community in real life but have been making more of an effort since covid ended.
I feel strongly that a quiet, healthy life is a life well lived. I would much rather be taking it easy and farming than running myself ragged with the corporate grind, so admittedly the pace of your life is something I wish I had for myself!
How far does the USD go in the Philippines? Who knows, that could always be a retirement spot for me one day! Assuming I ever even get to retire. Things are a lot harder for our generation then they were for our parents. I know with my 401k, I lost more in 2022 than I put into it. It's sort of depressing.
I fantasize about simple living and getting off the grid more, but in a healthy way. I don't think I could be a recluse, but I would love to be mostly self-fulfilling with the garden and animal products. Even getting off the electrical grid would be cool, but all that is a ways off.
Anyway, I have a little bit of gaming time tonight (finally), so I'm diving into LUNAR 2.
Raculi
I love this town and the look of things, and it's nice the people aren't trying to kill each other and hate each other... but at the same time, it's so sad how much of the town has been "cleansed" and is how infected by Zophar.
One thing I like about the game is the Ronfar/Leo/Mauri history. I like how Leo, as stubborn and bull-headed as he has been, is so level-headed when it comes to Mauri. Here to even eases Ronfar's guilt over what happened to her, reminding Ronfar that he DID save her life with the potion, and that her infection by Zophar wasn't his fault. Leo is growing on me.
Serak Palace
I'm grateful this dungeon isn't as large as some of the others we've been experiencing (ie the Mines and Black Dragon Cave).
I forgot where to go and went back to Raculi. It turns out the old man at the town entrance is Ronfar's grandfather!
Then I remembered that Mauri was back at the palace (through the door that was previously blocked by a child) and I have confronted Mauri.
I don't think the LUNAR 2 soundtrack is as good as the first one, but there are some REALLY good tunes in this game. All the variations of the main theme are EXCELLENT, top-tier jRPG music. When Ronfar goes into Mauri's subconscious, I love the tune that plays. It's a piano version of the main theme. It's pretty and lo-fi and I dig it.
Anyway, I fought three of the heads and got some backstory for Mauri and Ronfar, but I'm fading something horrible. I'm saving here and headed to bed... It won't let you save in the dream world, but luckily I'm playing on PC with an emulator (your favorite, haha), so I can just create a save state rather than save to the actual file.
Catch ya later, homie!
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Hey, Boo! Boy, that last post of mine was really embarrassing. I didn't want to miss a post, so I forced myself to just type -SOMETHING- while I was all twisted out. Lol. I was really on cloud 9 last night, though. I took it slower tonight and I drank water in between each beer I'm like really cognizant of my water-intake one of the few things I'm well-aware of I just know when my body's dehydrated and I'm feeling out of it. I feel much better tonight the tipsiness wore off after about the second beer, and I had a third just for the night-cap. When I first read your reply earlier this afternoon I was really looking forward to at least giving you a really good post! Haha
I mostly watched Survivor 3: Africa all tipsy until it got awkward and I stopped for tonight. I played LUNAR 2 off-and-on today, though! I talked to everyone in Raculi--boy that town gives me the heebie-jeebies. Talks of 'going crazy' and mental institutions and stuff like that aren't really my bag cause that's so reality. I dread my brain just going dead from like, exhaustion or something and being put in a psych-ward, or something along those lines, lol. It's just too reality. But I guess Working Designs' text really hits home for me. I think they're actually trying to be funny about it but it creeps me out. lol
I think I'm gonna have to go in - and - out of the Serak Palace to grind for all the new equipment in Raculi. I fought a few battles and I kinda took a break - cause I realized I had some stuff I needed to do late-tonight, before I head off to bed. Nighttime's really the only time where I feel comfortable here - cause it's cooler - and I can move-about the household and get some stuff organized or like neated up. This pile of video game wires on the floor has been bugging me and I've been wanting to put it in freezer bags for awhile now lol.
Anyway. So my dog and I enjoyed a bit of Survivor. She's kinda nodding off now so I thought I'd spare her the sound of the T.V. while she enjoys her little sleep. I still have to stay up and get some stuff done though.
I just love being able to sit down and enjoy a beer every now and then. Sometimes I wait a really long time before I have a sip cause it tastes that much better. I also don't really want to making drinking alcohol a daily-habit just because I think it'll lead me to a life ending up in ruin. (lol) I'm so aware that I'm pretty much alone so I have to make sure to keep a level-head most of the time but I mean enjoying myself from time to time is I think important as well. Work hard, play hard! :D
Lol. I think we share a similar life or lifestyle yo. You seem like you're from Seattle or Colorado or something? I've mostly kept it weed for most of my life, alcohol for sure, cigarettes I took up here in the Philippines when I couldn't get my hands on weed. I found out you can get some here but I don't want to go to Philippine jail no way not a chance. I have tried cocaine, cause I think it's because I grew up in San Francisco and drug culture was so normal for us growing up and being in our 20s. It helped with work, etc. I have tried shrooms ONCE - lol out of everything I probably liked that the most. I have no interest in heroin or crack or anything like that cause that pretty much ruins your life once it touches your lips. I have tried sherms before, it's like a weed joint laced with PCP or whatever - , I don't even know? But now my life is pretty much all focused on trying to stay sober. I mentioned I was an alcoholic in my younger days but I think I was just being overexaggerating I just liked getting wasted each and every night. I never had a problem with it. I did have a problem with weed and I've stopped using it for going on 5 years now. lol People say you can't ever really get addicted to weed or that it's legal now but I was addicted to the habits surrounding it like when you run out, you have to get money, you have to find someone (dispenseries charge too much), you need to get all the stuff you need to smoke it, the munchies. etc. Yeah. lol.
Awe. Thanks Boo for the compliments on my living situation right now. I think you pretty much have it made with having a family, I don't have that. I think I'm pretty good money-wise until I retire for real in old age, it's just the l i f e in between that's my main concern. I don't really have to worry about money cause the cost of living here is so low compared to the US. I was thinking the other day that the country pretty much robs you with all the bills you have to pay for electricity and water et cetera. You make a paycheck and it's gone. Here I pay next to nothing, like I mentioned the internet is pretty much the most expensive at $20/a month. Come to find out, I think a lot of Filipinos here find internet connection a luxury. A lot of the housestaff here just love being able to go online on their phones. I don't think they can get that at home. I also notice they think me watching T.V. a lot is a little bizarre since most families here can't afford to have a T.V. or cable to go with it.
It kinda puts into view where I come from. T.V., internet that's normal to us Americans, but here they definitely see it as a luxury or something only "rich" people have. It doesn't make me feel special but it does humble me. Like to be able to come from somewhere with luxuries like that. Which really isn't even anything special to us in the first place.
- 1 US dollar is roughly = 50 pesos, here is how I usually think of it. lol But the exchange rate can dip low a lot. Just think of it this way, I've only held two minimum wage jobs in fast-food and saved up money, and I managed to move here and have (more than one) a house. The farmlot here is about the size of 3 1/2 football fields. So there's plenty of room for a pretty humble farm where you can grow your own vegetables, herbs and what-not. There's a pond on the property and we put fish in there from time to time so they get do their thing and reproduce and they'll be more. The internet connection is decent. It's not high-speed cable but I can run my PS4 Pro online just fine. The location is 4 hours away from Manila but I quite like being in the middle of nowhere.
I mean, I was just watching Survivor at 80 volume and I no frickin' cops give a shit, or the neighbors. I'm in the middle of a damm field. ferchrissakes No one's gonna bug me on my cellphone, no one's gonna ring my doorbell or knock in the middle of the night. I don't have a neighboring house a foot away from mine.
I was gonna say I enjoy my T.V.-watching here so much. I almost felt transported to Africa hahaha. It's so natural here with so many trees and the animals all around. It really is my dream life. I have God to thank for blessing me so much right now, lol. No one here gives a shit. That's all I wanted to get away from in the US, is that feeling like you're being watched by all your nosey neighbors all the time, you can't do anything at night (I'm a night owl), I was so annoyed by the cops in my neighborhood it drove me crazy. I haven't had a single problem in the 5 years I've lived here. And I hope it continues like that.
I mean, I don't have a girlfriend but I love being alone. It helps with my research. I've always had a dream growing up of being like an old sage and I've played every single JRPG and I know everything about them and I've researched the old text. Do you remember Sabin in Final Fantasy VI? I've always wanted to emulate that lifestyle: like a single guy, living by hisself in the woods (in a house) and he's just doing his training all day, and he cooks his own food, enjoys his tea. I feel like I'm becoming a better version of myself every day. I do mine own thing. No one bugs me. I can do JRPGs all day. Or, I can continue my Survivor research. I do have two dogs so I'm not totally alone at the house the whole time. And there's people that work for the house here but they have their own separate living quarters. The lot is so big we've built a lot of tiny houses and they have their own place. They live on the farm, but have their own house I guess.
I'm never lonely here. In the US, there's so many people but you don't know your neighbors and no one's ever really that friendly unless they need something it was easy for me to feel totally alone. Literally no one's gonna help me in the US if something's gone terribly wrong I just didn't gave that safety net. Here I think I'm pretty much set, and the people are way more friendlier which I think is NORMAL. The US is way too competitive, and living in the city it's like someone's gonna get'chu all the time, if you're not careful. Too many random people, doing random things. I didn't like the complexity.
Life's more simple for me here. Maybe I'm just dumb? I'm definitely not as smart as you as you have a job in corporate America. I'm just not cut out for that kind of lifestyle. I'd rather live simple and on the farm. I never found any sort of close-knit community (even at work) in America so I stopped trying to find it. I just found my way home is all. Where I belong. I feel like I belong here. Whereas in the US, I just think being born in another country, or looking 'different' people treat you a outsider. I don't have to name examples, I just knew and I could feel it it was palpable. I recognized it in school as a little kid, in High School. College was probably the only place I found where nobody gave a fuck. I wish I stayed there like I wanted to instead of getting a job. I feel I'm kind of an academic. No I didn't go to a Harvard, but I really "pay attention in class" so to speak. If I find a subject I like, I'll research it to Hell.
I don't have a clue about America anymore. It's just ?????? to me now lol. Now I feel free. Free from the system and everything. *cue Matrix*
Anyway. Boo. I think I've rambled long enough. I could go on but I'll probably cut it short right here. I just wanted to give you a good post. Stay safe!!! :D
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I didn't want to miss a post, so I forced myself to just type -SOMETHING- while I was all twisted out. Lol. I was really on cloud 9 last night, though.
First off, you're under no obligation to post daily. Just post when you feel like it. If it's a day or a week, I'm still here chillin'. The Compendium is one of my favorite little corners of the internet, so I check in pretty much daily.
As for the Philippines, that's awesome, man. You're living the life! What's the wildlife there?
Since you're pretty rural, do you have to worry about any large animals going after your chickens or anything?
We have coyotes here in Tennessee, and bears, too. Hawks and coyotes will go after my chickens, but I have about two acres of fencing for the chickens, so they get to free range within that fence and are well protected. I also have some anti-hawk stuff around the yard (mainly fake owls that I have to move around every other day). I've only ever had one attack on my animals that wasn't from the neighbors dog. He killed one of my chickens and their owner very quickly taught him not to do that again. My daughter had also taken that chicken outside the fence, so I can't really blame the dog.
I mean, I don't have a girlfriend but I love being alone. It helps with my research. I've always had a dream growing up of being like an old sage and I've played every single JRPG and I know everything about them and I've researched the old text. Do you remember Sabin in Final Fantasy VI? I've always wanted to emulate that lifestyle: like a single guy, living by hisself in the woods (in a house) and he's just doing his training all day, and he cooks his own food, enjoys his tea. I feel like I'm becoming a better version of myself every day. I do mine own thing. No one bugs me. I can do JRPGs all day. Or, I can continue my Survivor research.
Dude, you should join a preservation society for video games. You'd be SOOOO good at it! I know there's the Video Game History Foundation, or something like that. You'd be SOOOO good at it! Or you could do something like that just for jRPGs. Or even just a cool jRPG historian website. The sky's the limit!
Speaking of, I've gotten REALLY into the "Did You Know Gaming" YouTube channel and it's AMAZING. I've listened to their videos off and on for the past year or two, but the past six months or so they've been putting out some INCREDIBLE researching findings. A lot of interviews with developers and insiders regarding games that were cancelled or in pre-production. Plus games that were pitched but never made. It's just really fascinating to hear about some these games and companies. Rareworks,
For example -- Toad's Treasure Tracker was originally doing to be a Zelda game, but Miyamoto thought it was too un-Zelda-like. They ended up including it as a mini-game in some other Mario game, and it was really popular, so they decided to finally make it a full game. Miyamoto still didn't want to do it as a Zelda game, though, so it stayed Toad Tracker.
Legend of Zelda is one of my absolute game series. I've beat every single Zelda game except the two crappy CD-i games. I absolutely cannot wait to play Tears of the Kingdom. In fact, if we're playing LUNAR when it comes out I'll probably have to slow down my LUNAR playthrough even more, hahaha... Just kidding. I fully expect we'll be done by then. If it's anything like Breath of the Wild (which is looks like it will be), it will be a 100+ hour time investment.
Speaking of games with large time investments, you ever play any of the Xenoblade Chronicles games? I played both of the first ones and LOOOOVE the series, warts and all. The third one came out late last year. Once they release all the DLC for it, I plan on finally picking up Xenoblade Chronicles 3. If I know a game has DLC story content or post-game content that will be released at a later date, I generally wait to play the game until all the content is released and the game receives it's final bug-fix patch... The series is a bit heavy on the anime tropes, but I really like the storytelling and world design. They're great games.
I have a busy night tonight, as right after work I'm taking my daughter to volleyball and then to hang out with some family friends. I may or may not jump into LUNAR tonight, but that should give you some grind and level. If I do play tonight I'll probably finish the events with Mauri and then grind some. I skipped some equipment in town and do need to buy them. I don't know if I mentioned it, but I'm trying to buy 1 of every piece of equipment. That's been a large part of my grinding sessions for when I've slowed down the game pace.
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Hello, Boo-man.
Oh, I just really like doing this so I make an effort to write a really good post everyday. I just feel invested, is all. Plus I feel like you're my pen-pal now so I'd hate to miss a reply. :p I got drunk today and mused the funniest things to myself. Like how the internet is just so funny. I did play some LUNAR 2, I beat Mauri and I have to go into the Red Dragon Cave I saw your post so I stopped right there.
The wildlife? I try not to venture too far outside the village. I mostly keep to myself here on the farm and try not to be too nosy. I've learned I like my privacy so I respect others' as well. There's these wild white/black birds that come from another place that they tell me carry diseases that's bad for chickens. My Dad brought me a B.B.-gun to shoot them but I don't really pick it up too often. We worry about stray cats they mess with our chickens sometimes, and I guess snakes but they're not really a problem since the fields are clean of tall grass and they don't realy come near where people live. The farm is very clean so we don't really have to worry too much, and my two dogs take care of anything that comes inside when I'm asleep. Lately, we've had a lot of cats coming in though. I dunno why.
Lol. A lot of my research I do mainly out of the love of my heart and I don't really need to make a profit out of it. I mainly share (for free) what I know with my friends online in some fashion like usually I stick to message boards. It's been an interest of mine since a young kid and I share everything I know with everyone free of charge. I do do a lot of writing in my journal so a lot of that's private work. But most of everything comes off the top of my head. I don't really keep notes on my computer or anything. I've found myself writing a lot more in a physical notebook not that I leer away from technology I just like handwriting.
I like Zelda a lot. I've only played A Link to the Past (didn't beat) I mostly stayed in the village and played around with the chickens, Oracle of Ages/Seasons and I beat Ocarina of Time like a year ago for the very first time. I really like the culture I guess it's kinda mysterious and I really like Zelda's music. My cousin is coming to visit in late April bringing a care package with a Switch OLED and some games. I hope to catch up to the Zelda series then.
I've heard about Xenoblade Chronicles and that it's pretty lengthy and epic, I haven't played it though cause wasn't it on Wii and I never got a Wii? I'll definitely look into it though. There's so many consoles now. @_@
I've mostly been on my Survivor binge, I'm on Season 4 and I'm planning on doing the First Eight seasons. I just sorta need to relax my hands so I sit there and do hand exercises, and I re-hydrate with a lot of water. I drank like 5 beers today and I feel sorta great. It's so nice to stay up late here nighttime is so cool in contrast to the dry heatwave during the daytime. I'm just in my underwear and enjoying paradise. My dog's keeping me company I'm so comforted when she falls asleep in my room. The other one's kinda trained to guard the outside. I try to keep one with me in case I'm asleep and if she barks I'll wake up.
I'm trying to connect with you more so I'm concentrating on just LUNAR 2 right now, too. I've been feeling really dehydrated lately (I wake up with a really dry mouth, tongue and throat some mornings) so I've been focusing on water, water, water. I'm still doing my daily walks. I put on my shoes now since I walk so much my flip flops have a hole in 'em. I'm still doing my stretching/yoga, I've been focusing on regaining my flexibility and mobility since I lost a lot of weight and plus I enjoy long sessions in front of the T.V. so I try to move / or, just do -ANYTHING- if I've been sedentary for an hour. I'm really bad and I enjoy those satisfying cracks on my body, lol.
I just wanna let you know, Boo--you've really made my I guess time here. :) I really enjoy doing this like playing an RPG with someone else over the internet and coming together and writing about it. I've always enjoyed being creative and getting to know people online so. C: I was gonna say I feel like we're on the same adventure and we sit down, camp and joke & tell stories!! Hahahaha Sometimes I wonder what the characters do when you're not playing the game. It's been great learning about you. I sometimes like to be boring cause I think a lot of creativity comes out when you have nothing to do. I just kinda think about what to post the whole day.
How's America? lol You know I've been really worried about you all since Covid. I've had family members update me here-and-there, and they make it seem not so good. I know I'll be fine here. But my heart really went out to you guys when all that stuff first happened. I know I seem like I have problems with America from how I've been talking but I mean I lived there for 26 years so I can't help but wonder what's going on? I was gonna say it's really nice living so remotely, like people ew. I just wonder if you've had to make any changes like staying indoors more or anything like that?
I actually have to admit I feel really guilty living like with such newfound happiness here. I struggled to find happiness while living in the U.S. and the Philippines gave it back to me. I don't know if the connection I have with America is just gone, but I still wonder how the people are doing there? Sometimes I like to report back to Mother Base and be like A-OK. I like to blip on the radar once in a while.
Well, I'm just gonna go back to doing my thing and maybe I'll telecommunicate to back home while I watch the boob tube. See ya later, Boo!! :D
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I've heard about Xenoblade Chronicles and that it's pretty lengthy and epic, I haven't played it though cause wasn't it on Wii and I never got a Wii? I'll definitely look into it though. There's so many consoles now. @_@
XC1 was originally on the Wii, then they did a port for the 3DS, and about a year ago they released a full remaster for the Switch. I started the Switch remaster some time in late 2022, but wanted to pause it so my limited gaming time went to LUNAR instead. It's a great game, and it's one of those games that will give you 120+ hours of gametime if you do the sidequests.
XC2 is a bit different in both tone and gameplay. Whereas XC1 was a darker, more realistic story, XC2 makes this more anime-like with both the look of the game and the storyline. It also leans really hard into waifu-territory, which sort of annoys me, but I do think that XC2 is probably the overall better game of the two. They're mostly standalone but you eventually get some connections late in XC2 that tie the two games together, and from what I understand, XC3 sort of ties back into both the previous games in some pretty major ways.
One of the things I want to do eventually is replay XC2. I only played through the game once and I put in 200+ hours to max my characters, do all the exploration and side quests, and obtain most of the optional characters. There are LOTS of optional characters and affection levels needed to unlock new skill abilities. But the wild thing is -- if you beat the game once, there's a NG+ option where you get a lot of additional side content, including an additional 7 or 8 party members. I'd like to go and play it a second time to do the side content at some point.
Anyway, sorry, I went down this rabbit hole. I say all this to tell you to pick up a copy of the series when you get your OLED Switch! I'm rocking the Switch Lite and my daughter as the original Switch, so we're covered in our house. I just like the Switch because there are some really good RPGs and console-specific games, plus I can take it on the go.
I've mostly been on my Survivor binge, I'm on Season 4 and I'm planning on doing the First Eight seasons.
I think I mentioned it before, but I'm a Trekkie and like to re-watch all the series and have them on in the background sometimes. I was on my Paramount+ account today and noticed that the streaming app has ALL the seasons of Survivor. I really need to get my family to sit down and watch a season. I think my daughter would love it!
I just wanna let you know, Boo--you've really made my I guess time here. :) I really enjoy doing this like playing an RPG with someone else over the internet and coming together and writing about it. I've always enjoyed being creative and getting to know people online so. C: I was gonna say I feel like we're on the same adventure and we sit down, camp and joke & tell stories!! Hahahaha Sometimes I wonder what the characters do when you're not playing the game. It's been great learning about you. I sometimes like to be boring cause I think a lot of creativity comes out when you have nothing to do. I just kinda think about what to post the whole day.
I don't think you're boring at all! If anything, your life sounds like interesting than mine! My life is just busy and there's no down time. It's good because I stay busy and don't have time to get depressed or think too much about things. When I have a lot of down time I tend to get depressed and just overthink too much, and I sort of wallow in the state of things here in the US. I love living here in the United States, but there is SO MUCH broken and I don't foresee it getting better.
For example, they just passed a bill in Tennessee (where I live) to repeal drag. I'm not into drag at all, but I find it super weird that they'd outright ban it, and yet they haven't banned the KKK or other white supremacy groups, nor have they banned militia that clearly have ill intentions and have planned to attack the power grid in some sort of show of force. It's just backwards to me. And now a few members of Congress are trying to get Republican states to succeed from the Union. How is this not sedition?!?! The hypocrisy is real and I have a lot of concerns for the quality of life that my children will have here. Unfortunately, America is the Roman empire in it's decline -- I feel that things will look very different in our lifetime, and not for the better.
That's why I want to be a positive impact on everyone I meet. It's the little moments of kindness that makes life worth living!
Going back to your jRPG thought-pattern about being on an adventure and having downtime around the campfire -- I like it! That is certainly what we're doing.
If your life suddenly turned into a jRPG, what kind of character would you be? Not to keep talking about Xenoblade Chronicle, buts I'd like to think I'd be https://xenoblade.fandom.com/wiki/Addam (https://xenoblade.fandom.com/wiki/Addam) from Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna the Golden Country. It's a standalone DLC prequel to XC2, and Addam is one of the main party members, but not the main character. He's a family man with a wife and kids, is optimistic and charismatic, and he just wants peace for everyone. His plan is to help save the country by doing what is right and then retire to become a farmer. I identified A LOT with his character when I was playing the game... although I'm certainly not royalty, nor am I any sort of leader. But I did identify with his motivations, his character, and his not-the-protagonist approach. I
I'd hate to be the lead in a jRPG, hahaha...
I'm not sure what trope I'd fulfill. I'm not smart or scholarly enough to be a mage, not athletic enough to be a warrior, not dexterous enough to be a thief. I'd probably be Reks from Final Fantasy XII, hahaha... Another amazing entry in the Final Fantasy series, btw. I never beat it and really need to play the remaster that came out a few years ago.
TOO MANY VIDEO GAMES ARE IN MY BACKLOG.
Speaking of, now on to LUNAR 2!
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I decided to do a double post since my last post was way long.
Serak Palace
I finished the events with Mauri. Poor Leo and his self-doubts. The events seemed to subside super quickly, and I'm glad Mauri is healed, but I can't believe everyone has just accepted it all at face-value, especially after we know that the possessed Mauri could fake being nice. And what about all the other villagers that Mauri made to drink Zophar's blood and also become possessed?!
Raculi
I went back to Raculi and it appears everyone is also healed. Since Mauri was the first and the binding agent of the whole ceremony, when the curse was lifted from her, I guess everyone else reverted back to normal, too.
Anyway, it's off to the Red Dragon Cave! I thought it was the island back on the previous world map with Neo-Vane - the one with the giant wolf-head-shaped rock formation - but it's not. I've spent like 20 minutes going all over the world (especially now that we've made a full circle and can go pretty much anywhere now), and I can't find it.
I finally pulled up a walkthrough and lo and behold, it's literally back at Serak Palace in the room with Mauri. Geeeeeez.
Red Dragon Cave
Nice to see Nall again. Nice, uh, pep-talk to Ruby, I guess. Although I like him talking about his feelings with missing the loss of Alex and his old friends. I'm sure he's had other friends in the past 1,000 years, but I can imagine how hard that would have been.
Lots of cool items in this cave -- particularly Dyne's Armor!
Anyway, I've reached the Fire Fiend and am saving here. I'll tackle him tomorrow. If I remember correctly, it's a pretty hard boss!
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Hey, Boo!!!!--I just finished a Survivor session so I'm just taking a break right now, and I thought I'd check to see if you've posted. I drank like 4 beers and I'm feeling really good right now. I was just musing to myself how much I've changed from 20-year old alcoholic me getting wasted everynight to me now just popping open a beer and enjoying myself on the couch, so to speak. I think alcohol can definitely be a good thing if you don't abuse it, I think I have a much healthier relationship with it now than I did in my early years!
Oh, I've heard nothing but good things about Xenoblade Chronicles. I'll definitely have to pick it up when I can. It's part of the Xeno universe, amirite? Like Xenogears-Xenosaga? That's a throwback, for sure. I haven't done much with Xenogears since middle school. I think the Xenoblade games are pretty hard to get / expensive, though? I'll see what I can do about it here, since you like it so much. I have been wanting to sink my teeth into a meaty JRPG I can pour hours into and really obsess about. lol
Survivor is definitely family-friendly viewing. lol I'm sure you'll all enjoy the challenges. I think kids get a dig out of everyone being dirty not showering, being hungry and the depravation. It's funny to watch during dinnertime when you're all eating lol. There's strategy stuff if you're more business-minded and a lot of psycho-babble about morality and junk if you're into thinking about thinking hahahahaha lol. There's a little bit of everything for everyone. :)
In terms of our gaming adventure in LUNAR 2, I just am wandering around the Red Dragon Cave. Not doing much at the moment lol
Re: my life. I was actually thinking today how I'd go crazy if I was still in the US and be forced into a routine of some sort. I think going to school all through High School kinda forces us into a routine or schedule of some sort and that kinda follows us into adulthood and to work. I'd probably kill myself if I had to, for example, wake up at 5:30, drink coffee/eat breakfast, get ready for work, -the commute- , work and sit on my ass for 8 sedentary hours, -the commute home- , pick up groceries for dinner, cook dinner for the family and I'd have like nothing left to do what I really want to do i.e. hobbies / play a video game / watch something. Like, I would just.kill.myself. I'm pretty lucky I manipulated my life into what it is now and I have a very free schedule.
Have I ever mentioned how when I was young I thought being "locked in jail" was in a way kinda 'romantic'? Obviously, it's not but being locked in a room all woe is me for years upon years is kind of funny. I always wanted to be a prisoner when I was a kid and to work for McDonald's as a cashier. Those were my dream jobs. I was a weird kid. lol BUT,--now I've been kinda emulating the model prisoner like locking myself up in my house for days and just writing and writing and writing. That'd be a cool social experiment. The prisoner's diet/exercise routine is so interesting to me cause they get in such good shape over just continuous exercise out of sheer boredom on very little nutritional food! Also, I think it goes against the norm or what-have-you, but being locked in your room with no stimulation and provided you have no one to speak to but yourself you'd just be thinking and thinking and thinking. I honestly noticed in HS I constantly talk to myself in my head continuously and I even had trouble sleeping cause I couldn't stop thinking and it'd keep me up at night. I haven't told you but I LITERALLY FORCE MYSELF to play video games, watch Survivor episodes, write in a journal, go online and use the internet just to keep myself from lying in bed and just thinking about my life all day for hours and hours. I dunno if this's normal, but I think as long as your thoughts aren't negative, harmful or evil then anything goes! I admitted to my psych that sometimes I "talk to my friends" like in the US in my head all the time; like they'd ask me what's up and I'd say something and she told me that's the most normal thing she's ever head before! Lol
I'm an only-child and I'm very imaginative. I don't like being overstimulated like other guys I almost prefer being understimulated so my low-priority shit I like to do seems that much more fun when I do it! I definitely don't have ADD or anything since I like love slow, boring lifes. Like taking up smoking cigarettes is really interesting to me cause I take a moment away from life to be by myself, quiet and just think about whatever. I dunno if it's that lingering stoner-ness.
Honestly, if I could be any JRPG character it'd be any guy from the 90s JRPG trope they all have similar stories: a commoner, from a small village, some sort of farmer or self-resourceful individual, leads a quiet life but fights to protect his love, his family or the world. From evil. Then after the adventure is done, he's happy, fine and fulfilled to go back to his usual simple life. Any of the Ryus, Tirs, Alexs is fine with-by me! <3 :) No offense but I could probably never relate to mains if I had some crazy corporate job. Even at all my minimum-wage fast-food jobs I was fine being low man on the ladder, being stepped on by everyone, having to deal with all the customers and still putting all my effort into being the EVERY GUY in the restaurant whether it's cooking, doing the dishwashing, cleaning the bathrooms or taking out the garbage at night. I mean. I knew my place. I was always the lowest. But I was expected to do everything. And I'll probably get fired once... whatever they get bored of me.
Anyway. That's all for tonight, Boo!!! C: I'll probably sit in a stupor and think about alcohol's true meaning in my life. lol Bye.
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Tonight's going to be a short post for me. We had company all night and I'm pooped.
I only played for a little bit and beat the Red Dragon Fiend, and I saved right after. I didn't think through the fact that we're about done with the game now that we've got the power of the four Dragons. Of course, the late-game content is pretty large (I remember the dungeons being long), and then there's at least several days of content with the Epilogue. But man, we're almost done!
Oh, I've heard nothing but good things about Xenoblade Chronicles. I'll definitely have to pick it up when I can. It's part of the Xeno universe, amirite? Like Xenogears-Xenosaga? That's a throwback, for sure.
There are three series, but each one is independent from the other. The only carry over between the three are just the shape of the Zohar (a sort of cross-like motif).
- First was Xenogears (which is a single-entry title) on the PS1;
- Then there's the Xenosaga series (which has 3 game "episodes" that literally pick up where the last game left off, a la Mass Effect) which were all on the PS2;
- Most recently there's been the Xenoblade Chronicles series (which has 3 games loosely tied together by a singular plot thread, but the three are also completely independent and you don't need to play any of them to understand the others);
- There's also Xenoblade Chronicles X, which was a WiiU exclusive and is sort of a bastard child unaffiliated with the others, but still falls under the Xenoblade Chronicles titles.
So yeah, three unique series that are only related by the creator and the Xeno-moniker. Outside of that, they aren't really related.
Re: my life. I was actually thinking today how I'd go crazy if I was still in the US and be forced into a routine of some sort. I think going to school all through High School kinda forces us into a routine or schedule of some sort and that kinda follows us into adulthood and to work. I'd probably kill myself if I had to, for example, wake up at 5:30, drink coffee/eat breakfast, get ready for work, -the commute- , work and sit on my ass for 8 sedentary hours, -the commute home- , pick up groceries for dinner, cook dinner for the family and I'd have like nothing left to do what I really want to do i.e. hobbies / play a video game / watch something. Like, I would just.kill.myself. I'm pretty lucky I manipulated my life into what it is now and I have a very free schedule.
Way to rub it in, hahaha... Jk... But for real, it's a very unsatisfying existence. It's no wonder where so many Americans are defeated, distraught, and unsatisfied. I know I am.
I haven't told you but I LITERALLY FORCE MYSELF to play video games, watch Survivor episodes, write in a journal, go online and use the internet just to keep myself from lying in bed and just thinking about my life all day for hours and hours.
I feel like, after a certain point, that would get old and you'd start getting antsy. Maybe not, but one would think! I know I couldn't do it! I have to stay active -- I like to hike and get outside, or to write. My dream job would be as a writer, but I don't have time to even write as a hobby anymore.
Honestly, if I could be any JRPG character it'd be any guy from the 90s JRPG trope they all have similar stories: a commoner, from a small village, some sort of farmer or self-resourceful individual, leads a quiet life but fights to protect his love, his family or the world. From evil. Then after the adventure is done, he's happy, fine and fulfilled to go back to his usual simple life. Any of the Ryus, Tirs, Alexs is fine with-by me!
I get this! I could never be a Tidus or a Zidane or a sort of leading man. :D
Anyway, today was a good day. We go to church on Sunday mornings, so we did that. I ran errands and took my daughter to her sports practice, and then I managed to squeeze in a 4-mile run. I try to run 3 or 4 days a week, and normally run 3 or 4 miles each time. Running it really important to me, as it helps me clear my head and de-stress. I tend to be an anxious and stressed person, so it helps me keep my levels low. Then our friends came over and we made homemade potato-broccoli soup and had grilled cheese sandwiches. All-in-all, a nice day.
Hope yours was good, bud! Chat at you tomorrow!
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Hey, Boo. I've been looking forward to talking to you all day. I'll try to keep my post concise this time instead of just rambling to you.
So in terms of LUNAR 2 I beat the Red Fiend. I was thinking disc 3 was gonna start. Yeah, I'm looking forward to just getting the game over with I hope you're in it for the long-haul as I am cause I'm still down to beat the game if you are. I was thinking today how funny it would be if either of us gave up! I'm still down to play more JRPGs with you I was thinking if we can keep it to reliving the classics that'd be great for me. I really love picking up something old and analyzing it today. I feel I have more stirring in my head now than I did when I was like 13-years-old lol.
I didn't mean that comment about killing.myself literally it's just the way I speak. I'm quite the opposite of scheduling/routine I sometimes think 24 hours is way too small a window to get everything done in a "day" so I sometimes I have 48 hour days. Like I try to stay awake for 2 days and get everything I need to get done and then maybe I'll take a nap or finally pass out lol. My busiest time was probably High School (lol) I just had so many hobbies and interests going on at that time and I always thought to myself "how I wished there were more hours in a day?" I would go to sleep at 4am-and wake up at 7:30am for school, and I just felt like I was giving it my all and really crunching out my school days. I felt like I was in my prime. I dunno what happened after I graduated. I'm kinda reaching in deep and hoping to find that deep something within my that I had back then.
I just kinda felt like a lot of the stuff I've said was kinda heavy so I apologize for that. You just seem like a down to earth guy and I started diarrhea at the mouth. I'll try to keep it light from now on. C:
You seem to have a wonderful life and you seem to have everything together. I think you're so cool and awesome!! Sometimes I think I'm still aspiring... for dreams and shit. lol I think I'm still learning even at my age. Maybe I died when I was younger and, I was re-born again??! Anyway I think the key to life- to anything is just keeping a happy attitude. That usually always keeps me going if I'm just happy inside doing whatever I have to do.
You know I really admire your corporate grind just because I could probably never do that. Like especially dealing with those types of people everyday. I think I'm more tribal? And hands on? Like I just like animals and farm land. Consoles are the closest thing to me and technology. And I guess the computer. And cell phones now, of course. I've never really been a tech-savvy kinda guy. I always fake it whenever I have to talk about computers and such lol. I still like keeping notes in a analog notebook. I guess I just like to keep it old school vibes. My books. lol
I was gonna say I much prefer using a message board to give and receive messages since Discord seems like a real live chat and it's just too messy. I can pick what messages I want to read on an MB.
I hope you're keep up the Super Dad thing. You must be really good at it. I just finished Survivor 4 I think you'd really enjoy that season there's a few characters in it that remind me of you. I think it's where Survivor finally picks up. And the locale is random, and wonderful. And unknown. lol
I've just been really trying to get back in touch with my roots here in my life. Like getting closer to nature, living in my culture more. That kinda stuff. But I mean I still enjoy JRPGs. I love analyzing Survivor so much though, I was thinking when it comes to getting to know people I still think video games is a really niche topic, whereas T.V. is much more appropriate for say a work-setting or work-environment. It's just a safe topic to bring up when you're at work. Especially Survivor, it's been water cooler talk at the office since 2000. I can't believe you still haven't watched it and you say you work in Corporate America. I wanna say shame on you!! :p
I'll retort with a short post of mine own. Um well yeah. Everything's going great here. The bank opens at 8 or 9am here and I'm just staying up and getting ready to drop in on them. I just think sleep is the death of me, it just restarts my body so-MUCH-so it takes hours for me to gain my bearings after nodding off. I just hate sleep. I dunno which I hate more: sleep or food. So yeah after I get some pocket change I can start to make more orders on what I need around the household/ranch villa. lol I love blowing money sometimes lol.
Aiight, keep up the good work Boo!! I catch ya around!! :D
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Yeah, I'm looking forward to just getting the game over with I hope you're in it for the long-haul as I am cause I'm still down to beat the game if you are. I was thinking today how funny it would be if either of us gave up!
Yeah dude, I'm in for the long-haul. Especially now that we're just about at the end-game. We gotta knock this out of the park!
I'm still down to play more JRPGs with you I was thinking if we can keep it to reliving the classics that'd be great for me. I really love picking up something old and analyzing it today. I feel I have more stirring in my head now than I did when I was like 13-years-old lol.
I'll probably want to take a little break, since all of my gaming time is now going into LUNAR 2. I'd like to probably play Metroid Prime Remastered or finish Death Stranding, and then I'll be ready for our next game!
I didn't mean that comment about killing.myself literally it's just the way I speak.
I knew what you meant, hahaha... I didn't take it literally! :D
I just kinda felt like a lot of the stuff I've said was kinda heavy so I apologize for that. You just seem like a down to earth guy and I started diarrhea at the mouth. I'll try to keep it light from now on.
Naw man, this is real talk! Everything is on the table for the VidKid and Boo video game hour! I enjoy our chats, even when we foray into sensitive or deep topics. You don't need to change the topics or do anything differently. If I don't lean into a topic it's not intentionally -- my mind is probably elsewhere and I simply can't dig into every topic without missing something along the way. I also tend to bounce around in conversation, so it just goes with the territory. Don't change a think, bro.
You seem to have a wonderful life and you seem to have everything together. I think you're so cool and awesome!! Sometimes I think I'm still aspiring... for dreams and shit. lol I think I'm still learning even at my age. Maybe I died when I was younger and, I was re-born again??! Anyway I think the key to life- to anything is just keeping a happy attitude. That usually always keeps me going if I'm just happy inside doing whatever I have to do.
I mean, I certainly hate my life about 50% of the time. I love my wife and kids and the life here at home, but I certainly hate the other half that has to deal with work and having healthcare, and the future state of the world. I haven't even scratched the surface of how deep my frustration goes, haha... But like you said, the key to life is just to be happy, keep a good attitude, and I do think we just have to roll with things. It doesn't mean we can't change things or fight to change our lot in life, but I do think sometimes we just have to accept things for what they are.
I've just been really trying to get back in touch with my roots here in my life. Like getting closer to nature, living in my culture more.
This is what I'm trying to do, too. I'm just slower at it, haha... I also don't really have much of a culture to fall back on. My parents are the stereotypical American descendants of immigrants from England, and the culture they did prescribe to was moreso that hateful, evangelical Christian outlook that I have denied. Life is better when you aren't judging others and steeped in hatred; I wish more people saw that. I'm sure that most people *aren't* that way, but since it's my entire family, it's hard to escape from. I've definitely pushed my parents and siblings out at arms length as a result of it. I still love them and we have a good relationship, but there's just so much toxicity there that I have to keep them at arm's length or else I end up on the verge of a mental breakdown, haha...
I can't believe you still haven't watched it and you say you work in Corporate America. I wanna say shame on you!! :p
I have watched it! I just haven't watched it since, like, season 8 or season 9. I saw every season before then!
The sun is shining here after like a week of clouds and rain, so I'm going to go for a walk with the kiddos before the sun sets. Later tonight I'm going to finish up events in the Red Dragon Cave and move on to returning to the Goddess Tower. It's time to start finishing this!
One thing I'm hoping for is more context for Ghaleon - I just realized that he's hardly in the game, and what we are given is pretty thin. I know we'll have the final showdown with him and he ends up sacrificing himself as a hero, but I hope we get a little more than what we've gotten. His character really could have been anyone, specifically a new character!
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Dang, I wrote a huge response and my power went out. I lost the entire post!
I got nothing for today now. I played LUNAR 2 a little today, finished the Red Dragon Cave, and had a confrontation with Ghaleon...
A summarized list of my thoughts...
1.) I wonder what the deal is with the Dragons. Are they somewhat omniscient and produce offspring before they know they're gonna die? We saw Quark do that in the last game, and the red dragon in this one. Or does each color of dragon always have a child out there in the world, which only ascends with dragon powers when the parent dies? Again, like we saw with Quark in SSSC and the Red Dragon in EBC.
2.) I need to find the timeline for the lore of LUNAR. Dragon Song takes place 1000 years before SSSC, and EBC takes place 1000 years after SSSC. The dragons in LUNAR DRAGON SONG are all entirely different dragons than the ones in SSSC, which makes me think the dragons are NOT immortal, despite a throwaway line from Ruby. Also, when did Althena bring humans to Lunar from the Blue Star? I thought it was about 1000 years before SSSC, but now that I think on it, that can't be right.
3.) What's the story with the False Althena? She is working with Zophar because she was promised eternal life and beauty, but where did she come from? Does she have any powers? Is there any backstory there?
4.) I'm still annoyed at the whole revival of Ghaleon subplot. He died in SSSC, and Zophar blindly revived him because why? Because Ghaleon was powerful and previously fought against Althena? I'm curious. I do remember that Ghaleon ends up betraying Zophar, but I'm curious to some of the machinations here.
Alright, that's the condensed version of my thoughts from today's post that was lost.
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Aiight.
Drinking binge over. I'm back.
I ended it all with taking a pill last night and finally falling asleep. I can't wait to get back into LUNAR 2 it's the first thing I thought about when I woke up today, all in a haze.
I'm not a total expert on the dragons but I kinda think they're reborn just like Althena. When Dyne gave up his powers, Althena was reborn into Luna and Dyne gave both the baby and Nall to Alex's dad. They never outright explain it but I think hinting there's some rebirth going on. Like mythological creatures tend to do that right, like the phoenix?
Yeah, I don't think the dragons are immortal they live a long time but as we see with Quark they do age, I think sometime during this time they have offspring like Nall just happened to be around when Quark was old and near-death. The Red Dragon in SSSC was young but I guess she had Ruby before EBC.
I'm pretty sure Fake Althena is just any old regular human girl. She wants eternal youth and goddess-like beauty. She's meant to represent the shallowness and superficiality of humans, as she is a human posing as a real goddess. She does have powers you eventually have to fight her, evil powers.
Zophar basically made a move to revive Ghaleon thinking he'd seek out revenge on Althena; plain and simple. He was so close the first time he might be willing to bat twice. I actually think they show Ghaleon a fair bit he pops up now and then. I'm happy he doesn't get too many lines I don't want the whole story to be about him.
-I'm happy like 100% of the time. If I stopped having fun I'd probably take myself out. Sometimes I wonder if I'm hypermanic like I'm just SOOO happy but when I get sad I really feel it and get super depressed and sink down into a hole.
-I think white people are interesting. I sometimes wanna ask them where they're from originally or what blood they have, but I dunno if that'd be rude or if I'm just gonna get a state as an answer? I can usually tell from the last name like O'Brien/Carroll is Irish and van den Berghe is German? Do you have any deep connections to England? I think English girls are cute and I love their accent. Oh, I'm pretty close to my immediate family--Moving out at 18 isn't a 'thing' here and everyone lives together under the same roof all in one house and NO ONE thinks it's weird or even a thing, like we do in the U.S.
-Survivor's really taught me about the good attitude during trying times thing like cause they live on and island with nothing lol. It's also taught me life's all about disappointment cause my favorites don't ever seem to win. It's always the most random person you can think of they crown the winner. I think you get knocked on the chin a lot in life and it's important not to get down. I love watch Survivor on repeat cause I love repetition and watch the same thing over back and see if I have any different thoughts or add to my analysis.
Ok. Gonna jump on LUNAR 2 now again, Boo. Take care!! Bye! :D
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Aiight.
Drinking binge over. I'm back.
Haha, I hope you had a good time and you were safe.
I'm pretty sure Fake Althena is just any old regular human girl. She wants eternal youth and goddess-like beauty. She's meant to represent the shallowness and superficiality of humans, as she is a human posing as a real goddess. She does have powers you eventually have to fight her, evil powers.
Right, I just hope for maybe a little more backstory for her. She's sort of evil for evil's sake, so I'd like to see what made her desire all those things, and how'd she fall in line with Zophar? Like how'd they meet and how did she even end up in a position on Patagulia to claim to be Althena reborn? That being said, I think you're right about her being a representation of humanity's shallowness, so maybe that's the point and we don't really need much more than that.
I'm happy like 100% of the time. If I stopped having fun I'd probably take myself out. Sometimes I wonder if I'm hypermanic like I'm just SOOO happy but when I get sad I really feel it and get super depressed and sink down into a hole.
I've struggled with depression off and on for the past 15 years. I've seen professionals for mental health and tried medications. Currently not taking anything, but it certainly can help. Just gotta balance the good and the bad (which is easier said than done). I'm appreciative of my wife and kids because they keep me going. I'm a little bit of a nihilist, so they keep me from descending too far into the existential abyss, haha!
I think white people are interesting. I sometimes wanna ask them where they're from originally or what blood they have, but I dunno if that'd be rude or if I'm just gonna get a state as an answer?
Haha, I don't think most gringos would mind, although the blood type question would throw most people off (Asian or otherwise), simply because that's a very Eastern tradition. I know when I was in Japan that was one of the earlier questions I was asked by the locals, haha...
Speaking of blood, I gave blood late last week and I am still recovering. My energy level has been really low. I gave two units of red blood cells, so they took a bit extra compared to whole blood. I donate about five or six times a year and it always takes me a little bit to recover, but this time has been particularly rough. All I want to do is sleep but I can't!
I can usually tell from the last name like O'Brien/Carroll is Irish and van den Berghe is German? Do you have any deep connections to England? I think English girls are cute and I love their accent. Oh, I'm pretty close to my immediate family--Moving out at 18 isn't a 'thing' here and everyone lives together under the same roof all in one house and NO ONE thinks it's weird or even a thing, like we do in the U.S.
Naw, no connections to England. My dad's side of the family came from Scotland in early 1800s, so they've been here for many generations, and they seemed to have mostly married English settlers. My mom's side is entirely English. We have been told we have some Native American in us, but when my dad did a DNA test all we saw was Iberian (Spain). We don't have any cultural ties to England, although I spent a summer in Scotland and it was a blast. I even visited the island where our original Scottish ancestors came from!
So all in all, I'm as generic white boy as it gets. :D
I'm gonna dive into LUNAR here in a bit and will double post with any thoughts I have. I didn't get to play yesterday. We're having bad weather here tonight and school is canceled for the morning, so fingers crossed.
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Heylo, Boo. I've mostly been re-watching Survivor for the past few days and it sure is refreshing rather than playing video games like 24/7 lol. I just got done watching my favorite season, so I'm like on a high lol! Sometimes I go back and forth between researching JRPGs / and analyzing Survivor so, I'm glad I have both these two hobbies in my life they kinda balance each other out lols.
Um, unfortunately I don't know too much else about Fake Althena other than she's just a human girl. Maybe Zophar tapped into her desire and chose her that way lol?
Um. I go back and forth between believing the doctors that diagnosed my "depression." I think I was just overweight and lazy, and they thought those were early-signs of it? I never think about it anymore and I struggle now with balancing my happiness. I feel I should be feeling different emotions everyday instead of being 100% happy, positive, fulfilled with my day and satisfied with my life all the time? I don't think being happy all the time is healthy. But I'm not gonna like read sad animal stories just to feel sadness, you know? lol
Oh I probably meant bloodline not blood-type. lol I got my blood tested like a few years back and found out I'm "AB" Negative. I googled it and apparently it's the rarest of the types. lol I know the Japanese in particular believe it tells lots about one's personality. I don't think we care too much about it in the U.S.
The only thing I know is when I was stuck in the hospital the white staff put "White/Latino" under my race lol. And I read the police report and it said White/Latino again. I complained to my social worker that I'm Asian and she said everybody thought I was Spanish from the way I looked like and my last name. :shrug: People in America are weird.
Anyway Boo, you know me I'm just waiting for you to give the go-to signal as to where you are in the game and that's my cue to trudge forward and make it to just before that point. I'm really glad we're doing something other than video games all the time though it's so refreshing. lol
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Oh dang, I didn't realize you were waiting on me. I'm in the Goddess Tower saved right before fighting Ghaleon the final time.
Anyway, we've been without power for almost two days, so I haven't gamed any the past two nights. In fact, we've had such bad storms here a few people have died and lots of trees and powerlines are out. Our electricity came back on about 30 minutes ago.
Today and tomorrow I'll be trying to clean up the yard (we had two trees go down) and I'll be helping the neighbors. I may or may not be online for another day or two. Once I am back, though, I'll go into detail on the gaming updates and continue our normal chit-chat. :)
EDIT: I've been without power most of the day. It's been off and on. It was off for the past two hours or so and just now came back on, but I'm not holding my breath seeing as how it's been. It's also cold here (about 45 degrees F).
I'm over this crap.
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I go back and forth between believing the doctors that diagnosed my "depression."
I get this. My doctors were quick to suggest anti-depressants, when exercise and healthy living did far more for me than any medication did. Not that medication doesn't serve a purpose in the equation, but "depression" as a whole is thrown around very easily. Like you said, it's all about balance.
Oh I probably meant bloodline not blood-type. lol I got my blood tested like a few years back and found out I'm "AB" Negative. I googled it and apparently it's the rarest of the types. lol I know the Japanese in particular believe it tells lots about one's personality. I don't think we care too much about it in the U.S.
Hahaha! Yeah, I thought you meant blood type, which is pretty much horoscope for them.
The only thing I know is when I was stuck in the hospital the white staff put "White/Latino" under my race lol. And I read the police report and it said White/Latino again. I complained to my social worker that I'm Asian and she said everybody thought I was Spanish from the way I looked like and my last name. :shrug: People in America are weird.
I shouldn't laugh, but this is kinda funny.
Some gaming thoughts I had from before but never got to post here...
I thought the animation of the dragons destroying Pentagulia was awesome. I love seeing the dragons come together and just reign destruction. I often underestimate their power and forget that they're essentially demigods in their own right.
It was also good to finally get some motivation from Ghaleon on the Dragonship Destiny. He claims to want to destroy the world with Zophar only so he can rebuild it in the image he desires. Also - I noted in that conversation that Ghaleon flat-out calls the world LUNAR, as in with all capitalization. I think that's something you called out waaaaaay back when we were first starting. I don't remember having seen it that way elsewhere in this game, although it may have and I never paid it any mind.
Also - costume change again for Lucia, and she's back to her original red outfit! I like how they take a lot of Russian / Eastern European / Scandinavian influence in the look for the outfits in this game. I LOOOVE it, actually. All that fur and cross-threading.
There was that one room where Lucia and company gives full background to Zophar and the events of LUNAR and the Blue Star. I remembered all this already, but it was cool seeing it again and with more context. The chamber was supposed to be using the Goddess Tower to channel magical energy back to the Blue Star so that it may be healed. I know I've mentioned it a million times, but there's so much room for sequels and more stories in this series, and it's a damn shame this series is relegated to cult classic...
I know I've said it before, but I'm really tempted to play DRAGON SONG. Probably a modded version of the game (if such a thing exists) where the combat and game system isn't so terrible. If I remember correctly, walking in that game is a slog and dashing costs HP, not to mention the weird battle mechanics.
Anyway, my next session will be defeating Ghaleon and then going on to the final battle against Zophar. I may try to beat the game in my next session. I'll wait and see where you're at before I do anything further, though.
Thanks buddy. We're almost there!
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Hey, Boo. I've been just catching up with my Survivor re-watch while I, basically, waited for an update from you I thought for sure you were just busy but it's TOTALLY FINE with me. lol I needed a much-needed break from video games and just sitting back, eating snacks while watching Survivor was and still is a great-way to relax for me. I've been into it for 23 years and watching the early seasons all over again brings back so many memories, about HS and what-not lol. It's all such a blast from the past! lol
Ok. After I get done with this post I'll pop in LUNAR 2 again and do the events after the Red Dragon. Tbh, I kinda forgot what happens. I know Lucia fights Zophar in a dramatic anime clip and then there's fighting Zophar itself, and then the events in the Epilo-goo. lol
-I think not thinking about depression at all really helps. I just don't even think about it anymore, forrealz. lol. I just think if you're really struggling with it, and you keep thinking stuff like 'why do I have this?' or 'what did I do for this to happen to me?' I think it'll just not ever fix itself. Definitely getting the motivation to go out even for a walk, and get your basic needs taken care of like personal hygiene is really important. I think everyone deserves to be happy and take care of themselfs. lol Well, as a former-stoner, I get really excited getting to play with prescription medication now as I've never had access to it before. :p There's tips & tricks like cutting your pills and stuff that I never knew of before.
I shouldn't laugh, but this is kinda funny.
Oh, I meant for that to be a funny story so please laugh if you found it funny as well. It was just weird cause all the little nurses thought they were like experts on peoples' race/and their physical description/like having to fill in that little box. I've always identified as Asian. I do get a LOT of interactions with people where they have no idea what I am though, sometimes they ask sometimes they just give a funny face and I don't know what that's supposed to indicate. I go back and forth between just putting down Asian or being forrealz with myself and thinking "what is my physical description/if I have to fill out a really important form?" I guess, I have learned that most people from America find me to be White/Latino which is supposed to be its own specific description. I just take it to mean I look kinda white with a little bit of Latino heritage. Probably from the food I ate in the U.S. and all the different types of people I see growing up. People tell me here, that if I had stayed in the Philippines I would probably look different. I think talking about race is hella funny, dude. lol
Tbh, I've gotten so used to just telling someone what they expect to hear instead of me having to explain I'm Filipino and why I look like this. It just saves both of us time.
I dunno how to explain it but I always took Lucia's red garb as some sort of Muslim thing? Like how the women wear that fit that covers their entire body except their eyes. I've always associated it with that.
Lol, hopefully we can keep having fun with the next game we do, Boo. I'll TRY to get my hands on the game if I don't already have it in my collection. You already know my type - like oldies but goodies, 1990-2000s JRPGs is always fine with me.
Ok, I just have to shave my face and I'll do LUNAR now.
Oh, well just to reiterate LUNAR refers to the video game, and Lunar refers to the in-game world a.k.a. the Silver Star. Maybe Ghaleon was just yelling or the writers got LUNAR/Lunar mixed up, for once haha.
EDIT: Ok I just beat Fake Althena and watched the ending scenes of Disc 2. Those two scenes have to be my favorite of all-time. I've always loved the scene with Old Luna. It actually made me cry this time seeing her again, last time I watched it just made me teary-eyed. I haven't cried in awhile, my tears were cold as ice. Then I think everyone's favorite scene in Lucia vs. Zophar. I've always enjoyed watching that scene. I love watching LUNAR's anime cutscenes after a while of not having seen them. This makes me not be able to wait until I watch the Trinity of Terror in SSSC. I love having a perfect save on my PS3 with the Rememberizer so I can re-view the scenes whenever I want to. Some of the scenes you can miss like the Springs in SSSC. lol
Goodnight, Boo.
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I put some time in today to get to where you are. There's not really much to talk about on the personal front. Things have been hectic with all the power outages and storms. After I posted yesterday evening, the power went down again and we were without power until this morning. Knock on wood, but so far we've kept power all day today. In fact, the weather was great today (although there was lots of pollen).
I'm just trying to stay sane. Admittedly, I've been progressively more stressed over the past few weeks; it's just a combination of work and the constant movement of school and kids events. I am the type of person who needs some downtime/alone time, and it's sometimes days between having a minute outside of 30-minute(-ish) Lunar sessions. I haven't been getting that at all, so I'm in a bit of a bad place mentally. I did squeeze in a run today and ran four miles, and running is the one thing I force into my schedule, as the endorphins / seratonin from running helps keep me from getting into a slump.
Anyway --
Goddess Tower
First I defeated the transformed false Goddess Althena. Her mutated form reminds me a little of some monsters from the Elder Scroll series, which are essentially blue/grey-skinned scantily-clad ladies with the bottom halves being giant spiders.
But dang, a lot of FMV here! I think this events between here and Zophar's final dungeon are longer than anything we'd gotten in SSSC. It's so epic!
First...
I find it funny that Nall knows all the answers for Lucia, but Lucia herself - as an avatar of the Goddess - doesn't have them. I guess that's because Lucia has been asleep since the events of on the Blue Star and has no idea what's happened since (and is happening) here on Lunar. How'd he get here to the heart of the Goddess Tower anyway? Has he always been able to go here? Or has he just been locked out since Pentagulia set up the magical barrier?
As for the scene with Luna / Goddess Althena... Okay, this confirms what I always thought: that Althena became human once and for all and was reincarnated as Luna. Goddess Althena no longer exists, period. This is what I originally thought, but the game definitely gives the impression that Goddess Althena does this every so often in a cycle: she chooses to become human for a time, dies, and her deity essence essentially "reforms" and she becomes the deity again.
There's always the prospect that there are other avatars of the Goddess imbued with her power, just like Lucia... but yeah, Althena literally doesn't exist anymore. But these daughters of Althena (or avatars, or whatever you want to call them) can claim her power.
Regardless, when Lucia claimed those powers she stole the magic from the ENTIRE WORLD. And just in time for Zophar to awaken!
World Map
I like how this game is sort of an escalation and a fallout from what happened in SSSC. We got the backstory to how and why Althena brought the humans to Lunar, and the events that transpired. Zophar is a bigger threat than Zophar ever was. I also like that Zophar is this weird sort of Cthulthu-esque entity in the end and is truly beyond normal human behavior.
The scene between Lucia and Zophar was pretty rad. It's interesting that Zophar was indeed defeated back on the Blue Star, and it is only because of the darkness of mankind that he was able to revive. I wonder if this means that he could always come back again one day...
END OF DISC 2.
I finished the events and am waiting before I commit to going into the final dungeon, as once you do, there's no turning back. I'm just glad we finally get Leo as a party member. I like his character growth (even if he was an ass-hat initially), and I think he's a cool combat character.
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Heya, Boo.
As for the game, I beat Ghaleon on top of the Guild's roof. I decided I was gonna do a few things before entering Zophar's Domain (if the game lets you): a) I'm gonna re-visit all the town maps if you get control of the Destiny. There HAS to be line changes by now for everybody. And b) I'm gonna try to grind out the Chiro monsters in the White Dragon Cave that you were previously too weak before to kill in one round before it runs away. I'm pretty sure Hiro's Triple Sword and Lemina's Catastrophe is enough to kill it in one turn of the party's. I'm lv. 52 btw. From what I can remember, they give out lots of EXP points. I'm also gonna try to max out my Star Light capacity of 20 just because I don't want to struggle in the dungeon lol.
Oh, I meant to say sorry about the blackouts you've been having. (We call them 'brownouts' here, it wasn't until recently I found out the Mid-west calls it brownouts as well.) We get a lot of blackouts here too where the electricity just shuts down for an hour, sometimes multiple times a day it's pretty much just annoying especially if I'm playing a game and haven't saved yet. We have a generator on the property that runs on fuel so we just turn it on everytime the power goes down. It's pretty old like 5 years old but it still works. It's pretty helpful to have around the house just in case.
I feel you Boo about needing me time I'm exactly the same way. Whenever I force myself to "socialize" when I'd rather be doing my own thing I feel fake even if mental health professionals say you have to have face-to-face interactions with non-family members everyday. That sounds kinda old to me. Don't they know times have changed and much more communication is done online nowadays? lol I disagree with the 'norm' a lot of the times.
Yeah, Leo used to be my fav but you get him so late in the game it's like pointless. lol
As for me, I'm still doing my Survivor thing. I looove strategizing to myself about what I need to order, or self-care stuff, stuff for my dogs, things I need around the farm et cetera. I've been keeping a calendar I drew by myself in just my notebook I keep track of things like how many hours I walked today and how many sit-ups/push-ups I did. lol It helps me tons. I try to write in my journal whenever I can it's just another way to shittalk. Mostly, I've been doing lots of self-care I'm in love with this comedone that helps get rid of all the junk in your pores. I'm obsessed with clean and now I guess cleaning my own body. Maybe I'll finally get a girlfriend soon if I keep it up? (Yeah right, I snore.) Yeah I've been getting more into trying to look presentable, normal and just having good hygiene. I gross myself out a lot so I can only imagine other people? I've been ordering more food I want to teach the cooks what I like to eat like: more couscous, paneer tikka masala, etc. I get tired of rice everyday.
Yeah that's pretty much all I've been up to. Right now, I'm gonna pop in another episode and experiment with body lotions and stuff like that. I bought teeth whitening foam. I have stretchmarks under my arms from High School when I used to run track so I bought cream to get rid of it finally. I'm messing around with talcum powder. I wanted to ask you since you're a runner if you know any good foot creams or what to do when your feet get all hard and calloused from walking/running? I just bought this stuff from Thailand that smells like banana. And I have a foot scraper. I've been trying to clip my nails literally the day they need to go. I like my nails super short since I game a LOT. I also wanna get some hand creams cause I game a LOT. Been doing a lot of hand exercises as well.
I also just mess around with rubbing alcohol. lol
Well, das' it.
I love items, lol.
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As for the game, I beat Ghaleon on top of the Guild's roof. I decided I was gonna do a few things before entering Zophar's Domain (if the game lets you): a) I'm gonna re-visit all the town maps if you get control of the Destiny. There HAS to be line changes by now for everybody.
Good idea! I'll probably do the same tonight. I def know I need to refill my restorative items, so I plan on doing the same.
I'm lv. 52 btw. From what I can remember, they give out lots of EXP points.
I've level 50.
We have a generator on the property that runs on fuel so we just turn it on everytime the power goes down. It's pretty old like 5 years old but it still works. It's pretty helpful to have around the house just in case.
We keep talking about getting one but it has yet happen. They're not cheap here and having a spare $500+ USD doesn't seem to be in the cards any time soon.
I feel you Boo about needing me time I'm exactly the same way. Whenever I force myself to "socialize" when I'd rather be doing my own thing I feel fake even if mental health professionals say you have to have face-to-face interactions with non-family members everyday. That sounds kinda old to me. Don't they know times have changed and much more communication is done online nowadays? lol I disagree with the 'norm' a lot of the times.
My job is very, very social. I meet with a lot of different team members, I have 7 direct people reporting to me, and I meet a lot with stakeholders / C-level leaders. It's very social and exhausting. I'm an extrovert-introvert (moreso extrovert than introvert), but the older I get, the more that seems to be flip-flopping.
Maybe I'll finally get a girlfriend soon if I keep it up?
Go get them, king! The hard thing I could totally see is that you're not in a huge metro area. Where would you meet eligible bachelorettes? My buddy is single and uses Tinder, and I live about 30 miles outside of a major metro, and when he tried to swipe in my area he exhausted his options in one sitting. Suffice to say, not a lot of options if you're in an area where there aren't many people.
I wanted to ask you since you're a runner if you know any good foot creams or what to do when your feet get all hard and calloused from walking/running? I just bought this stuff from Thailand that smells like banana. And I have a foot scraper.
Your skincare routine is much more robust than mine. I just use plain old soap from Costco on my body and face, and I do washcloth scrubs with a face wash about every other day or so. Obviously skin type really plays a big role. For example, I naturally have really soft skin that is only moderately (healthy) oily. My wife's skin is more ashy. However, I scar REALLY easily and she never scars, so I'm not sure how all that works, but it is what it is.
I still get pimples every now and then, especially around my hairline, which is caused by hairspray and hairwax that I use when I go into the office. I have to really watch that.
As for my feet, I have a pumice stone and scrub my feet about once a week. I started about a year ago and I had to do it every few days for a few weeks until my feet could finally get soft and the dry skin gone. I also used a lotion for sensitive skin every now and then, but that isn't often.
There is a product called Blue Emu I use for my knees. It's moreso to help my knees since I was having bad knee problems for a while. I rub it into my knees two or three times a day and it seems to have some skin softening agents in it, as my knees are now shiny soft, hahaha... Unintended side effect!
When I run now I have to wear compression sleeves on my knees. Between those and new running shoes (and the Blue Emu mentioned above), my knees are in a much better place. I've also started sleeping with a thin pillow between my legs, to stop my kneecaps from grinding each other, haha...
Anyway, I'm signing off for now and will try to check in tonight after my gaming session. We're so close and we're going to be at the Epilogue within the next few days!
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Hm, you were right, Boo--you automatically go straight into Zophar's Domain after the fight with Ghaleon so there's no time to do whatever you wanna do. Oh, well. I'll probably tackle the fortress tomorrow.
Yeah, I don't think generators are cheap here either which's probably why we're still using this one after so long!
I could probably never handle the kind of work you do. It just reminds me of the types of people they cast on Survivor I've seen so many: corporate consultants, corporate recruiters, administrative assistants, advertising executives, real estate agents, V.P.'s etc. I think they definitely want to test the corporate kinda of life vs. simple, at-home Midwestern values and see which ends up winning in the jungles. I think they wanna see if savvy ends up winning or fails outside of the urban jungle. I mean,--I've only had minimum wage jobs at Chipotle Mexican Grill & WingStop, but, I absolutely adored that job, and I feel they taught me so much about life that I'll take with me to the end of my life. I was really, really, really happy when I was working there. I looked forward to coming in everyday and giving my all even past 8 hours if they needed. I learned so much about the hazards of I guess dirtiness in the restaurant and kitchen when it comes to being around food. And I learned so much about "American-style" customer service. It really taught me how to run my own home now.
I could talk about work all the time even though I don't work there anymore. I thought hey working in a kitchen sounds fun, and then all the "mysteries" about it being a company further brainwashed me and sucked me into that job even more. I mean, I keep up with the stock market here and last I checked Chipotle Mexican Grill was doing pretty good. I'm proud to have worked for them and it's part of my resume. I don't think anyone could've ever believed someone else could come close to McDonald's or Burger King in the fast food / fast-casual race. I still remember how to make all the items on the menu cause I've read the "recipe book" so I'm looking forward to trying it out here at home. I'm really glad I got that job right out of High School instead of college + then find a job cause it taught me all the basics. Plus I luckily avoided that trap of being "overqualified."
My psych tells me I'm an introvert cause "[ I ] like to think." But, I think I'm an extrovert around people, in my head and online lol. I don't think I'm the life of the party, or the ice breaker but I get my tentacles out there to everyone.
Again,--I'm trying to come to my own conclusions and decide for myself instead of blindly believing everyone and what they say about me.
Well, I was thinking to myself today and to be honest love, finding a relationship, marriage, kids and family is probably the farthest thought from my mind right now. If we're being honest here. I remember I was 19 at work and all the young parents were so boring to talk to cause they kept talking about their kids. I could never relate to that. So I kept talking about Survivor cause it's so wholesome. --Like in this one-dimensional zombie fashion it was all they could ever talk about in social interactions. I was kinda of a stoner so I thought bringing up kids was kind of a moodkiller / downer / buzzkill, but I'm probably the worst when I bring up my parentals. I'm thinking to myself you know I try really hard to avoid that and having to be burdened by it at such a young age. I want to have fun in my 20s and enjoy being young and having safe one-night stands so when I'm 35 I can look back at it and think what a stud I was in my prime. I didn't want to have kids and not be able to pay for it. It was a conscious decision I made. Right now, I'm still glad I have a young person's mindset, and I feel like I'm STILL in my prime, I'm young, I'm working on maintaining my good -lookingness so maybe when I take a trip into Manila I can find a hook-up or something? I'm just starting to feel maybe I'm different from everybody else.
I'm the happiest I've ever been in my life. And I'm just enjoying being a single, bachelor bird as much as time allows it. Too many JRPGs to play, man.
Well ever since 4K T.V. every male actor seems to point out how you can see their pores on T.V. now, so I've been using a comedone everyday to unclog my blackheads and whiteheads and get all that nasty sebum out. It works wonders. It literally changed my face overnight. I've been playing Yakuza series and apparently Asian guys have huge pores you can see into. Whenever I see kids, I just think how dirty they are cause I was dirty when I was a kid--now it's fun to clean myself up after all the self-negligence and thinking who has time to do this? With school and work.
I watch Survivor though and notice average people seem to be obsessed with their own good-lookingness. I think we Americans are in love with the spotlight with all the T.V. and movies we watched back in the day and we all kinda have that dream of maybe moving to California and becoming an actor or a model. I notice every single person has white teeth. I could never get my teeth to be THAT white even in High School. My natural teeth have a tinge of yellow. I'm kinda obsessed about the whiteness of my teeth now I use two different kinda of toothpaste + toothpaste foam. My pimples are on my cheeks it's so obvious it comes from the pillowcase especially the right side which I sleep on. I kinda wanna be extreme and change the pillowcase everyday instead of once a week now. I need to order some pillowcases. My Dad's a barber so I don't use product in my hair, right now I opt for the buzz cut and I'm getting a haircut tomorrow.
Lol at pumice stones I used to see these rocks in my grandma's bathtub and wondered what they were for? Right now I'm just using a foot scraper twice a day and I apply regular lotion + then some foot lotion. Then I wear socks over them. Ooh, at compression sleeves. I kinda wanna try using that medical tape sometimes lol.
Anyway Boo,--AGAIN it was a fun chat with you. You help take the load off my mind every day. I think you're such a cool guy and you've got it all together. It's just fun being able to share my mundane stories with you and hopefully you get a kick over how utterly boring my lifes is here lol.
Hey, any thoughts on Chrono Trigger? I mean this's a Chrono site so I thought you'd be down to analyze, research and dissect CT some more? I'd probably love to do what we did for LUNAR 2 for Chrono Trigger? I mean, any 90s JRPG will do. Even if you wanna play a more modern game that's fine with me. But I think having this side-project would be wonderful if we kept it 90s JRPG / or even 2000s. Lemme know what you think?!! Love ya, man!!!!! :D
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Hm, you were right, Boo--you automatically go straight into Zophar's Domain after the fight with Ghaleon so there's no time to do whatever you wanna do. Oh, well. I'll probably tackle the fortress tomorrow.
I wasn't sure, but I was afraid of that! I'm glad I waited. Yesterday I went to the White Dragon Cavern and spent some time grinding, got to level 54, but didn't explore any towns or check on NPC dialogue (I'm not sure you can even leave Vane). Unfortunately, I didn't get home tonight until after 9:00pm and I woke up at 4:00am, so I have had a VERY long day and won't have a chance to play at all. Tomorrow is another 4:00am day, so I'm going to hit the hay here in a few.
I could probably never handle the kind of work you do. It just reminds me of the types of people they cast on Survivor I've seen so many: corporate consultants, corporate recruiters, administrative assistants, advertising executives, real estate agents, V.P.'s etc. I think they definitely want to test the corporate kinda of life vs. simple, at-home Midwestern values and see which ends up winning in the jungles.
It's definitely the reason why! Haha! I feel like I'm sort of rare in that even though I'm sort of stuck in a corporate grind, I am super critical of it and not bought into it at all. I think it soulless work, and I often feel like I'm only there to enrich the 0.1% at the top of the corporate structure. But I need to pay my bills, I'm not a risk taker, and I don't really have many hard skills. Most of my skills are what they call soft skills -- I'm not technical, I can't code or anything, I'm just good at planning, managing money, leading projects, and getting people to work together for a common goal. I work in IT and I am always the dumbest person in the room, haha... But a lot of the time the really smart, techie people lack the social skills to really work in a team, so I sort of get to help steer that aspect of my teams. I certainly don't love what I do, but I'm good at it and pays the bills.
One day, if and when I eventually retire, I hope to live and operate a farm. I wouldn't mind a life something like yours! I long to live in a place sort of like the Shire from Lord of the Rings. My whole rural fantasy actually started from that place and that book series. I want a small little cozy cottage on a hill, with a nice flower garden, a small vegetable patch in the back, and a rocking chair on the porch overlooking pretty views.
I could talk about work all the time even though I don't work there anymore. I thought hey working in a kitchen sounds fun, and then all the "mysteries" about it being a company further brainwashed me and sucked me into that job even more. I mean, I keep up with the stock market here and last I checked Chipotle Mexican Grill was doing pretty good. I'm proud to have worked for them and it's part of my resume.
Dude, we friggin' love Chipotle. It's one of the healthier "fast food" options. It also seems like a pretty company. Once upon a time I thought about opening a fast food franchise and that was one I looked into. It needed quite a bit of seed money, but it seemed to have a really good corporate culture and the managers seemed to really care both about the quality of the food and the treatment of their employees. I believe companies should treat their employees like gold, and should pay them great wages. If a company can't, then they don't deserve to exist -- capitalism 101. If you can't survive without slave labor, shut the eff down.
I'm the happiest I've ever been in my life. And I'm just enjoying being a single, bachelor bird as much as time allows it. Too many JRPGs to play, man.
Dude that acceptance and self-appreciation is so refreshing. People are always wanting whatever is just around the corner and are never content. I admit I can be like that sometimes. I admire this about you!
Anyway Boo,--AGAIN it was a fun chat with you. You help take the load off my mind every day. I think you're such a cool guy and you've got it all together. It's just fun being able to share my mundane stories with you and hopefully you get a kick over how utterly boring my lifes is here lol.
I feel the same about you, homie. It's always nice having our digital friendship, which to me is just as real as any other friendship. I like being able to log in at night, play a little video games, and just chat with my homie about life and the game.
As for having it all together... not really. I'm just going through the motions of life and trying to have a good outlook and leave the world a little better than I found it. That's a lesson I'm trying to teach my kids. It doesn't cost anything to just be chill and polite and nice to people.
Hey, any thoughts on Chrono Trigger? I mean this's a Chrono site so I thought you'd be down to analyze, research and dissect CT some more? I'd probably love to do what we did for LUNAR 2 for Chrono Trigger? I mean, any 90s JRPG will do. Even if you wanna play a more modern game that's fine with me. But I think having this side-project would be wonderful if we kept it 90s JRPG / or even 2000s. Lemme know what you think?!!
My list is huge, haha... I was listening to the Chrono Trigger soundtrack the other day and I was thinking about how badly I want to play it. That may need to be our next game. I have only played through it twice since the DS version was released (but before that I played it probably a dozen times or more). It's probably my absolute favorite video game of all time.
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Hey. Boo~meister!
I actually had a busy day and I'm pretty, quite tired right now as I'm making this post. I didn't have time to game LUNAR 2 today but I plan to tomorrow. I'll probably just buy Ramus' stock of Star Lights and head into Zophar's Domain. I'll probably take my time and fight every battle cause there's probably a lotta goodies in there I don't want to miss if I get tired I'll just save. Gotta love save anywhere!
I had to do a bit of paperwork regarding the farm in another city so I had to drive there and I noticed driving zaps the energy out of me here I dunno if it's cause it's just hot in the car or I feel so cramped in my Civic!
Anyway. I'll probably make this a short post. I just watched a couplea episodes of Survivor, downed some energy drinks and that's the most energy I can muster for tonight! I'm about to hit the sack!
Lol, in my last post the only thing I wanted to get across about how I feel about corporate life is it reminds me of the guys that worship the golden Mani Mani Statue in Earthbound. Just like money, money, money lol. It's neither positive or negative just all about the almighty buck!
Oh, I was thinking about ordering a book to read and I read The Hobbit in high school and was thinking about getting it. I kinda wanna try annotating and scribbling notes inside the margins. :shrug:
Yeah, Chipotle had really good food. I ate it everyday and gained 10 pounds in a year. I got so fat. I'm gonna try to re-create the recipes at home so if, I get that project done I'll share with you!
I'm just finally doing me and not giving a fuck about what other people think! I'm a grown-ass man. lol
Ooohhh no Boo, I really do admire what you do you seem like you've got everything "handled" I was just curious about how you said some of the techies lacked the social skills... I mean, are they like totally awkward to be around, or something lol? Sometimes I feel intimidated talking by corporate people cause they'll say something that completely goes over my head and make me look dumb in a situation, but I'm just the total Asian guys guy. Don't talk to me about sports, I don't watch... All I care about is video games, video games, video games it's my life. Sometimes I feel like moving to Japan cause they'll accept my lifestyle there. Never really found acceptance from Americans about my hobbies or values. It's great living in Asia where they revere the elderly... sometimes I feel America's all about kids like with Disney. It's kinda creepy. I like serious stuff. Matters.
Yeah, Chrono Trigger gets my vote for sure! If you change your mind let me know
Uggghhh, sorry my post was all over the place tonight Boo, tomorrow I think I'll have more time to re-hydrate throughout the day and not be so cranky and drained of energy. Didn't have time to fully rehydrate today. Sucks. lol Take care, my man!!!!! :D
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... I didn't have time to game LUNAR 2 today but I plan to tomorrow. I'll probably just buy Ramus' stock of Star Lights and head into Zophar's Domain. I'll probably take my time and fight every battle cause there's probably a lotta goodies in there I don't want to miss if I get tired I'll just save. Gotta love save anywhere!
It's all good! Today I talked to some NPCs around the towns. I didn't talk to everyone, but yeah, there were some obvious dialogue changes. I got bored so I went back to the Goddess Tower and saved in front of Ghaleon. I think tomorrow I'm going to go ahead and enter the last dungeon and try to get all the way through it.
I had to do a bit of paperwork regarding the farm in another city so I had to drive there and I noticed driving zaps the energy out of me here I dunno if it's cause it's just hot in the car or I feel so cramped in my Civic!
Gotta love a Honda civic! Do you have to go far to get to the city to do those kind of things?
... downed some energy drinks and that's the most energy I can muster for tonight! I'm about to hit the sack!
Energy drinks before bedtime?! You mad man! :D
Just kidding. I drink about three or four Monsters a drink just to keep me moving with all the kids and work hustle. I wish I didn't need them at all, but alas... Caffeine is absolutely a drug and I am in it's vice.
Ooohhh no Boo, I really do admire what you do you seem like you've got everything "handled" I was just curious about how you said some of the techies lacked the social skills... I mean, are they like totally awkward to be around, or something lol?
Sometimes, although normally it's moreso they just don't know how to talk to non-techie people about the work they do. For example, talking about API calls and flat-file formats and
difference between an EDI850 and EDI855 can't be daunting for people who aren't intimately in that world, so sometimes I have to just be able to step back and sort of translate that into normal business transaction. For example, API calls is just one computer application reaching out to another application so that they can pass information back and forth. Essentially two applications talking to each other. Stuff like that.
Although yes, there are definitely some developers and techies who are socially awkward and really miss social cues and niceties that many people take for granted.
Sometimes I feel intimidated talking by corporate people cause they'll say something that completely goes over my head and make me look dumb in a situation, but I'm just the total Asian guys guy. Don't talk to me about sports, I don't watch... All I care about is video games, video games, video games it's my life.
Naw, it's not intimidating. We're all just people. And anyone that is going to judge another person is a pain in the butt and quite frankly, if that's the kind of person they are, fuck 'em and they're not worth talking to, anyway.
I mean, I'm a corporate guy and we don't have any problems! :D
I actually bonded with two guys at work today over anime. One is Asian (I think he was Chinese) and another is a black guy. I know of them both but don't really work on any of the same projects, so we don't ever interact. Anyway, I heard them talking about anime in our floor's kitchenette area, and I sort of butted into the conversation. Turns out we all had a lot in common and spent like 45 minutes just gushing over all kinds of anime and video games. We laughed talking about the old Adult Swim and Toonami blocks back in the early 2000s. We even laughed at how bad Inuyasha is, but yet we all love it for some reason.
There's lots of cool people out there and I think we all have much more in common than we have different, sometimes we just have to find those openings.
Didn't have time to fully rehydrate today.
If you've not seen r/HydroHomies on reddit, I high recommend it. I think it's your kind of people when it comes to water and hydration!!! Hahaha! My daughter just watched a short documentary on bottled water and how bad it is for you, so she has been talking to me for the past 10 minutes about trying to convince her classmates to use reusable water bottles and stuff.
My daughter is very environmentally conscious and I like that. She is sort of challenging me about my own health and recycling and stuff like that. I'm fairly conscious about my health and my environmental impact, but she likes to research and push me to take it to another level. Her idol is Jane Goodall (the lady who was the first to really spend time studying primates like chimpanzees and learn their behaviors). She has a pet snake, two cats, a dog, and is now wanting a pet cockatiel. I don't want any more pets, but my daughter and her little brother have a way of convincing me, haha...
Anyway, today was another long day in which I didn't get home until almost 9:00pm, so I'm headed to bed. Tomorrow is my last in-office day, so I'm excited that I can sleep in an extra two hours on Friday on account of being WAH on Friday. That means a little more gaming time tomorrow night.
ZOPHAR IS GOING DOWN!
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Hmm, I'm kinda confused where you are in the game, Boo, cause I don't recall Ghaleon being in the Goddess Tower. I thought you fight your way up, beat Fake Althena, fight a little bit more then it's the long string of cutscenes that ends disc 2-and you wind up on the Magic Guild Roof on disc 3? Then THAT'S when you fight Ghaleon. After you enter the Goddess Tower there's no way to backtrack once you reach the top and meet Nall, I'm confused if you just DIDN'T enter the Goddess Tower at all/and went back to previous towns and grinded.
Anyway, I bought Star Lights from Ramus and I'm in Zophar's Domain. I fought around a little bit I promise you I'm gonna take it slow so I don't miss any treasure. From what I recall, the boss fight with Zophar is really tough and he'll eliminate you if you don't know the right strategy but I know exactly what to do so I'm confident and just waltzed into the domain. I'm more worried about running out of MP/Star Lights but I have like 7 Silver Lights I'll probably use for the Zophar battle.
Lol, I'm your typical Asian dude so I like a nice ricerocket! Na, the city was like maybe 10-15 mins driving lololol our area is comprised of a lot of very small cities but they're more like towns to me. Reminds me of JRPGs.
Coffee doesn't really do much for me anymore, and taurine drinks is really the only thing that keeps my body from slumping after doing my daily walk. I'm like a super weak person compared to you as you run normally. I'm still targeting the fat on my body so I'm a proud cardio bunny! Don't really want to get muscled up as my body is already big in its natural state. Cardio/walking is just super fun for me as I can think to myself and get my exercise in at the same time. It's really relaxing.
Lol yeah, awkward people bug me but sometimes I think maybe I'm the awkward one!? Everyone here is pretty chill though and I think they get that I'm a private guy and I'm always busy and to myself with all my different hobbies!
Idk, I've met a lot of creepy-weird people in my life so I always have a guard up when talking to new people. I'm also naive/innocent so sometimes I don't know what the heck to do. All I know is if someone weirds me out I just get far away from them!
My anime knowledge is limited, if I'm being honest. The anime artwork and cutscenes in certain JRPGs is more than enough for me! I did get really into Sailor Moon, Dragonball, Ronin Warriors, Pokémon, Tenchi Muyo!, Magic Knight RayEarth and a bit of Slayers in the 90s but I haven't watched too much anime like I play JRPGs. I briefly watched Cowboy Bebop, Naruto and the Boondocks on Adult Swim but I wasn't THAT into it. I cut out a lot of stuff out of my life so I can focus on video games mainly music, regular T.V. programming, movies etc. All in all I think cutting out most of that stuff was good for me. It's kept me understimulated-and excited rather than overstimulated-and bored&tired. lol
Oh, I don't really visit Reddit I heard that's where the nerdiest of internet people go. My friend mentioned Reddit to me IRL once and I cringed. My love and need for bottled water is probably never gonna change when the temperature can reach nearly 100°F on a daily basis iced water is the only thing that helps cool my body and head down to where I can function normally. I don't like drinking from water containers cause I can smell my own spit on the rim and that grosses me out. I'm glad I can just drink the bottle and throw it out. Never fear though, we do recycle the bottles there's a plant here and sometimes us on the farm is kinda ghetto and we use the plastic bottles and make pots for plants out of them or something. Plus if it's not in the plastic water bottle it's never gonna freeze when I put it in the freezer like I NEED it to. The colder the better. Thank God I use Sensodyne.
Aiight, I'm gonna try to get more LUNAR 2 in tomorrow but I'm actually gonna go to bed early tonight cause I had such a fun day I just wanna lie down in bed and think of shit for 2 hours before passing out. HAHAHA. Thanks, Boo! Dogs are doing great/so is the farm etc. :D
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Hmm, I'm kinda confused where you are in the game, Boo, cause I don't recall Ghaleon being in the Goddess Tower.
Yeah, I didn't do a good job explaining, sorry about that. I also meant to say Vane, not the Goddess Tower. But regardless, I had reverted to a previous save state and re-did the events going to Disc 3. I realized that once you finish the Goddess Tower you're stuck in Vane and have no choice but to go to Zophar's Domain, so I wanted to go back to when it was still open world so I could talk to NPC's and level up more. So that's what I was doing until last night when I got back to where I could enter Zophar's Domain.
Vane
A few thoughts from the other day:
-I was glad to finally (permanently) get Leo, although I did miss Lucia in battle. I couldn't remember if Leo was controllable or not, so I'm glad he was.
-Random, but there was nothing to steal from Ghaleon using Lemina's Thieve's Stave. Booooo! At least we got the Ghaleon's Sword (which auto-equips onto Hiro, I guess).
-RIP Ghaleon (again).
-I am still down on the Four Heroes all hanging out in Vane like they are completely redeemed. I mean, I'm glad they are sort of good now and reformed, but it still doesn't forgive them for what they did.
Zophar's Domain
The dungeon is a slog and I've leveled at much as I care to level. I'm ready to end this and just fought straight through to the boss. Not much regarding good dungeon loot, and the Fiend Ring is practically useless due to the HP limitation.
Anyway, now I'm at the end of the dungeon and will wait for you before tackling the last boss. The dialogue started where Hiro finds Lucia, but I used a save state to stop there.
Oh, I don't really visit Reddit I heard that's where the nerdiest of internet people go. My friend mentioned Reddit to me IRL once and I cringed.
Maybe once upon a time, but it's pretty mainstream now. *shrug*
Dogs are doing great/so is the farm etc.
Glad everyone is good!
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How-do, Boo-man?!! I'm in a super good mood tonight I dunno why.
As for the game I'm somewhere near the end of the dungeon I think. I made it up to the terraces. The enemies aren't annoying so I'm just gonna walk around aimlessly and clear each map until I make it to the end. I should be able to make it to Zophar and fight him tomorrow morning. If you want to, you can go ahead and kill him. Do you remember the strategy? Zophar has an all-attack move that just destroys the party so I equip Jean with White Dragon Protect (cause she moves first) and just spam it ea. round, then just use a Silver Light whenever.
As for me, I'm super into self-care. I had realized, maybe it was the depression, that I let myself go. Maybe it's just age too? But I started in small steps and used my trusted comedone to clear out all my pores. My face was looking rough, man. Then I started on a small, basic men's facial/skincare routine. I'm doing this all for myself. I had even just ordered sommore body lotion and I tried to get the sun protection kind. Kill two birds with one stone, maybe. I don't really worry too much about hair, really, lol. Never had a problem.
Since I've been doing my daily walks I make sure to take care of my feet. The foot scraper is kinda of cool. And it gives me a reason to wear socks cause it's so hot here. I'm starting to change my pillowcase everyday. Extreme, maybe? But I'm an extreme kinda guy. When I'm winding down I just do hand exercises in front of the T.V. cause I game a lot and from using the computer/keyboard a lot. It takes away stress.
I noticed during my depressed-state I had a hard time doing daily basic hygiene stuff like being too lazy to brush my teeth. But now I have so much fun flossing, cleaning my ears and brushing everything on my body. It's kind of fun again. I notice it helps me get a more relaxing sleep. And I don't feel so so so dirty in the morning. I'm trying to copy Survivor and maybe not shower everyday.
I'm always staying hydrated. I love H20. I always tell people I'm a waterholic. Plus I don't think water can ever hurt you?
I'm trying to maintain the household cause I notice there's so much dust everywhere with the computer going and everything. But I'm focusing on my bedroom/Man Cave. Ever since playing Atelier I started getting into items lol. I'm ordering a buncha stuff to make my space cool. I love baggies, containers and stuff cause I'm such a stoner. Like I bought a plastic tub to keep all my snacks in and I slide it under my bed for the midnight munchies. :p
Anyway yeah that's all I've been up to. How're your cute girls? Still saving the environment? Maybe you should show your kids Captain Planet & the Planeteers cause I loved that show as a kid.
Anyway. Night. Boo. Have a good one! :D
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Zophar's Domain
Dang, Zophar's a hottie with a body, hahaha! One thing I like about this game is how weird some of the boss designs are; they are sort of Geiger-esque body horror creatures. As I've said before in regards to the False Althena, I wish we got more backstory for Zophar. Where did he come from? Has he always existed on the Blue Star? All we really know of him is that he isn't as powerful as Althena, that he came from the Blue Star (and destroyed it), and that he was only able to revive on Lunar because of the innate darkness in the hearts of mankind.
Anyway, I beat him in round one... Round two was fun, too. I liked how he used Lucia's magic spells against the party. Also, when she was talking to each party member, she mentioned that Leo has "piercing insight." Yeah right! That's not how I would describe him at all, haha...
Zophar's scowl in the second battle was also pretty humorous for some reason. Who knew Zophar was such as pouter. It was also cool to Lucia transform into another outfit. Or at least |I think it was a new outfit; all we could see was what was in the portrait, which was a headband. This may have been her previous outfit she got earlier (I'm pretty sure it is).
Some of the battle dialogue in this game cracks me up. I gave the Red Dragon item to Ronfar, and every time he uses it he says, "Come here, pretty kitty!" to Ruby and it's just funny for some reason.
Round three with Hiro and Lucia versus Zophar in his sort of dragon skull look with wing-like appendages. I think I beat him in one round!
Now that things have wrapped... We still have a bit more to do. That's right, THE EPILOGUE! And we need to collect all the Bromides! I pulled up a walkthrough to see how to get all the Bromides, and I don't know if I ever got Bromide X before. That sounds completely new to me!
Also, in prepping for the epilogue, I see reference to all the Dragon equipment... I didn't collect any in the story. Did I somehow miss these items or are they post-game content? It looks like you may or may not have have received the Dragon Helm back in Zophar's Domain...? I see conflicting information in two different walkthroughs. And quite simply, Eternal Blue Complete isn't nearly as documented (or as popular) as Silver Star Story Complete, so the documentation is far less.
It looks like I missed that optional stuff in Zophar's Domain. No wonder I was annoyed that I kept only finding Star Lights / Silver Lights and no armor or weapon upgrades. I also saved over my last save, and I don't have any save states still in the dungeon, so I literally can't go back there. I wonder if I can get back there in the Epilogue...?
Well shit.
I'm saving here after Lucia returns to the Blue Star, so I will start the Epilogue events next time I play. I really enjoy post-game content like this.
I gotta be up in about 6 hours for my daughter's volleyball, so I'm headed to bed.
I also think I've decided what I'm going to play in my break between this and the next game: Final Fantasy XV. I've been wanting to play it and started it back in 2018 but never finished it, so I'm going to start a new game after Lunar 2. I'm also probably going to play the Metroid Prime Remaster (but I should be able to beat that in a week or two).
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Hey, Boo, I actually JUST NOW beat Zophar, too! He's always been a pretty tough final boss I was looking forward to seeing your reaction to his difficulty? Or did you use the Jean-White Dragon Protect trick I was talking about? I thought all his hands were pretty annoying and one of them particularily was giving me a hard time in that it kept muting/paralyzing Hiro and I couldn't get any Triple Sword attacks in until I defeated it with Lemina's Catastrophe. Next time I'm gonna definitely put some sorta status ailment block on Hiro, and probably give Jean the Chiro Crest also so she moves before Zophar does too. I've played this game over-and-over too and he still sometimes gives me difficulty. You seem not too impressed with the difficulty?
Yeah, Zophar's got that whole androgynous, fairy kinda Marilyn Manson look-type thing going on for sure. I meant to give you some backstory on him--basically he's an alien being that wanders space devouring planets to I assume keep himself alive. He's been called a Planet Eater or Eater of Planets. He jumps from one planet to another and basically sucks the lifeforce out of it before moving on to a new one. When he stumbled upon the Blue Star Althena was there and she destroyed him, and moved all her children to the Silver Star/Lunar since it wrecked havoc on the Blue Star. The evil in people's hearts caused Zophar's revival. etc etc.
I'm so glad I killed Zophar early today I feel I can move on with my day.
If you're interested in "getting everything" for L2: EBC why don't you try getting your hands on the Official Working Designs Strategy Guide? I have it, but didn't reference it on our playthrough cause I wanted to try going into it blind this time. It pretty much maps out how to collect everything if that's what you're going after!! *product placement*
Hey, I was going to bed last night and thinking about our last post. Since you mentioned your kids are all about trying to save the environment, I think they would definitely like Survivor. Survivor's taught me a lot about "only needing the basics" and how to be more environmentally concious. Like for example, having only one set of clothes/handwashing clothing items and not using a washer & dryer/using a clothesline if it's not illegal in your city. Not using toilet paper/and flushing it down the toilet-I know that's a hard one for Americans to let go of. You mentioned your little girl and the water thing she might be interested in boiling tap water for 30 minutes and just putting them in her own container instead of constantly buying bottled water? Your kids and you? might be into the whole not showering everyday thing. Personally I stopped using a shower head and I opt for a bucket and a smaller bucket to take showers now. It helped me realize how much water is wasted even for a 15 min shower. With a bucket I use very little water, and that awkward feeling of letting the shower run while your're scrubbing your body. I use a loofah and a washcloth. Oh, and I opt for cold showers now it's so hot here I'd faint if I took a hot shower. You can save money and save the planet as well, if you stopped using hot water, maybe use the traveler's packs for shampoo & toothpaste to save on plastic consumption... etc.
I was gonna tell you, once you decide to retire you should definitely think about moving to the Philippines/or just another country and try "roughing it" maybe bring the kids along? You guys seem very "Filipino" and don't mind letting go of our hoity-toity American standards of living, like always needing a hot shower everyday etc. I was laughing at the episode of Survivor last night cause the white people seem so miserable without their soap, shampoo, hot water, stocked refrigerator, bottled waters etc etc. lol It's just something I constantly noticed on the show.
Boo, I have FFXV for PS4 Pro right now too. I understand Hahahahaha if you don't want to post about it but I was thinking of picking it back up, either that or Yakuza Kiwami 1. But after now that we're done for LUNAR I kinda wanna start a brand-new adventure and maybe pick up Dragon Quest XI? I watched a trailer and there was a baby floating down a river in a basket and I felt like it was calling me.
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Hey, Boo, I actually JUST NOW beat Zophar, too! He's always been a pretty tough final boss I was looking forward to seeing your reaction to his difficulty?
Oh, he was hard, all right! He took down party members multiple times. I essentially went back and forth between White Dragon protect spell (which I stupidly put on Hiro) and Ronfar's healing. I then spammed mostly multi-attack spells hoping to take all the hands down. When Hiro attacked he was using Triple Sword attacks. Hiro also had the ring on that kept him immune from status effects, so I didn't have any problems there. When I beat Zophar I had only killed two of the hands.
Yeah, Zophar's got that whole androgynous, fairy kinda Marilyn Manson look-type thing going on for sure. I meant to give you some backstory on him--basically he's an alien being that wanders space devouring planets to I assume keep himself alive. He's been called a Planet Eater or Eater of Planets. He jumps from one planet to another and basically sucks the lifeforce out of it before moving on to a new one. When he stumbled upon the Blue Star Althena was there and she destroyed him, and moved all her children to the Silver Star/Lunar since it wrecked havoc on the Blue Star. The evil in people's hearts caused Zophar's revival. etc etc.
Oooooh! Interesting! Is this from the manga / novel? Or is there an Ultamania out there for the series? Or did I somehow miss that in the game? Either way, I actually like that much more than Zophar somehow being a product of the humans on the Blue Star. Even if mankind helped revive him (unintentionally), I really like this origin story.
If you're interested in "getting everything" for L2: EBC why don't you try getting your hands on the Official Working Designs Strategy Guide? I have it, but didn't reference it on our playthrough cause I wanted to try going into it blind this time. It pretty much maps out how to collect everything if that's what you're going after!! *product placement*
I actually used to collect a lot of player's guides, but I sold them all off about seven or eight years ago. Now I only have a very select few that hold a lot of sentimental value to me. Final Fantasy VII, Chrono Cross, and a few others. I just don't have room for all the stuff that I wish I owned! Haha.
I'm actually not going to play tonight -- we ran errands today and my son has gotten sick tonight, so I'm pooped and going to bed after this post. I do intend on playing the Epilogue, though. I remember there are at least two additional dungeons, so I'm all in. However, I did look up some cheat codes that I may be able to use with my emulator that will allow me to insert items onto characters via cheat codes. I think I'm going to do that for at least the Dragon Helm. If I remember correctly, all of the Dragon armor has some unique properties, as do some other sets. I'm going to try that out tomorrow. It will be years before I want to play Lunar 2 again, so I might as well knock it all out now.
Not using toilet paper/and flushing it down the toilet-I know that's a hard one for Americans to let go of.
Funny you mentioned this, I am seriously looking for a good bidet. I used them when I visited Asia a few years ago, and I'm totally sold on the concept. We used to use the butt wet wipes to ensure a proper cleaning, but those are horrible for the environment and quit using them about 3 years ago. Now we just use TP, but I'm seriously down with the bidet.
As for water, we do use a water filter for our drinking and both our hot water tank and most of our appliances are green-certified for both decreased water and electricity usage. I don't know if I could give up hot showers entirely, but I did give up baths a while back. We'll see! I've looked into getting off the electrical grid and doing fully solar; I think that would be pretty rad.
I was gonna tell you, once you decide to retire you should definitely think about moving to the Philippines/or just another country and try "roughing it" maybe bring the kids along? You guys seem very "Filipino" and don't mind letting go of our hoity-toity American standards of living, like always needing a hot shower everyday etc.
I don't think things would be that challenging. We live fairly minimally. I would fear not being able to get the food I crave more than giving up any other niceties, haha... I also worked for Rakuten in Japan in 2018, so we considered moving to Japan, but ultimately decided against it. We both have elderly parents we need to care for before we do any more permanent travel. I am seriously down to move outside of the US, though... one day.
My brother-in-law married a girl from Costa Rica and I know the USD goes so much further there than here. They've toyed with the idea of moving down there and trying to work remotely here in the US somehow.
Boo, I have FFXV for PS4 Pro right now too. I understand Hahahahaha if you don't want to post about it but I was thinking of picking it back up, either that or Yakuza Kiwami 1. But after now that we're done for LUNAR I kinda wanna start a brand-new adventure and maybe pick up Dragon Quest XI? I watched a trailer and there was a baby floating down a river in a basket and I felt like it was calling me.
I've always struggled to like the Dragon Quest games. I've only played VII and VIII, although I picked up IX at a garage sale a few years back. If I remember correctly, X was an MMORPG, but they are making a single-player console version of the game. I wish Square Enix would do that with FFXI and FFXIV (although I hear that FFXIV is really a game you can entirely solo if you wand, and is much more plot heavy than most MMORPGs). Anyway, I own DQ11 on the Nintendo Switch and it's one of the many games I want to play. I hear it is more open world and has a lot to offer, so I definitely want to play it.
As for gaming, I'm still thinking about playing FFXV. I downloaded some mods in preparation for it today on the Steam Workshop. If I understand it correctly, SE never released the level editor they had promised. They also cancelled the four final character DLC that were supposed to reveal the true ending. I don't know how much you know about the game, but there was supposed to be an additional "good" ending that was going to be the product of multiple DLC episodes. Instead, after they cancelled the game they compiled those stories into a novel. I'll probably read it after I play the game, since it's still canon to the game.
I really liked the game the first time I played it. It's mostly open-world (at least the last 2/3), and I think I put like 60 or 70 hours into it just exploring the game and completing bounties. It's sort of like the opposite of FFXIII, in which the first 2/3 of the game was mostly on rails, and then the last 1/3 opened up the world considerably.
But yeah, the mods I downloaded were all just weapons and armor.
Alright, homie, I'm pooped. It's gaming time tomorrow! Have a good one!
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Ok, the way I read your last post it seemed like you nonchalantly defeated Zophar, lol. He's one of/if not the hardest boss in the game; I'm not sure if any of the Epilogue bosses are comparable to him difficulty-wise. You can beat Zophar just by aiming for his head, but the hands are annoying cause there's so many of them so I use Lemina's Catastrophe to just hit all of him all at once. I think I only knocked out the really long hand in front of him which was the one that was giving me trouble anyway. Jean's White Dragon Protect trick really works with this boss so I always spam it everytime I face it. I ended up using so many Star Lights and Silver Lights though. lol But, oh well. I just wanted to get into the Epilogue.
On Zophar's backstory: That's just mainly how I interpreted him and where he came from after all the years of playing the game and reading up stuff on messageboards. So that's what I always tell people.
I actually wish I bought more strategy guides growing up. I need to fill up my shelf spaces. My friends say they don't go for much now these days though and people sometimes give them away just to get it off their hands. I like them cause they contain some nice artwork and stuff sometimes.
Oh, your son's sick? Chicken soup time!!! I'm such a weirdo and enjoy being sick cause it's just different from the same ole feeling all the time. Something different. Sometimes I don't wash my hands sometimes in hopes of catching a cold, but I'm not gonna like lick the toilet in order to get sick or anything. lol It's just that I feel a million times better after the cold wears off, even much better than before when I was trying to avoid catching a cold spell.
Uhhh, --to be honest bidets changed my life here in the Philippines. I used to be a clean-freak and I have to shower before going out with my friends. But it totally changed my bathroom ritual. I seriously back you up 100% in getting one. I dunno why Americans are so against it. I'm not afraid of using public toilets, but using dry-wiping TP, and going about your day with no care isn't for me. I think Americans know Filipinos use a "tabo" like a small bucket with a handle to like wash up after using the bathroom. I've never used one. But I like the bidet we have at home. I still use TP but you can essentially go without it if you want to. It's so fun to use. LOL. I can't think of not having one now and I'm not looking back.
I'm actually trying to get away from the American way of life -- so using a bucket to take a shower is like actually so much fun for me. I feel so savage, crude and primitive lol if I can say that. Na, it's actually super environmentally-conscious and I feel I'm cleaner when I shower that way? I think the people here get a kick out of me showering like they shower. Like, ooh. The rich, American guy uses a bucket. I don't know if there are benefits to taking cold showers but my barber-Dad says not to use hot water all the time when I shower. TBH, I do wonder if I'm getting all the germs off if I'm not using hot water so...
Mm, I thought I could do it here when I was thinking of moving and I'm not saying it's easy/hard but it was an adjustment for sure. Why don't you just bring your parents with you? Filipinos live with their parents their whole life and no one would bat an eye!! Maybe the heat would be good for them, in their old age.
The one thing I do miss the most is the food - but, I've been on a weight loss journey for 5 years and NOT being around all the American food I'm used to helped tremendously. Here, a typical meal is very "Japanese" (since we like Japan) and it's just a small serving of rice, "ulam" - the meat/or main dish to go with your rice, gulay - vegetables and we have lots of dipping sauces mostly soy sauce/fish sauce/vinegar mixed with garlic/onions/chili peppers etc. I'm quite satisfied with a piece of fried fish and a little veggies. It's a miracle if I ever drink soda now these days. No one really carries sugary fruit juices. But we recently got a blender so I was thinking of making smoothies cause we have SHITTONS of fresh fruit. I think not being able to go to my closest McDonald's whenever I get hungry is doing me a favor. TBH
I'm planning on playing through the Epilogue. Then I'll probably finish Yakuza Kiwami 1. Then I'll think about getting Dragon Quest XI cause I want just a epic adventure. lol See you, homie! :D
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Whoops,--I kinda skimmed over the last part of your post when you were talking about what game to play next. So you've played FFXV already and are gonna do it again but with mods? I'm kinda a total newb to playing games on a computer so I have no idea, I don't really like to PC game cause I feel it's super hardcore and I've been warned about games on there like WoW. How it ruins people's lifes. lol But I mean I'm sure it's more mainstream now. I've been thinking about getting some sorta monitor set up in my office area/workspace. I'm stuck on a Dell laptop I brought over from America about 5 years ago so I think it's time for an upgrade of sorts. I'll have to do more research on it and ax more questions?
UM. I loved Dragon Warrior VII for PSX. I was thinking about it on my walk today; it's the first time I've ever put 200 hours into a JRPG before. It was definitely an epic adventure. I loved how it's such a classic, old-school throwback of a JRPG game on the PlayStation. Initially, I had looked over it since I didn't like how you can't see your party in battles a la Earthbound but I tried it again and it grew on me so much!! I loved it! It had a certain blandness about it reminiscent of SNES JRPGs lol--maybe not bland but just vanilla. lol
Dragon Quest VIII was good too on the PS2 I had recently just beat it for the first time last year. It was so epic and good, and it was so much fun. So Japanese RPG. I loved, every single minute of it.
Well. As I told you before I had just got a PS4 Pro and I only have like 4 games for it. I beat Yakuza 0. I have Final Fantasy 15, Yakuza Kiwami 1 and The Last Guardian. I could just play FFXV along with you ( ;) haha ) and it'd save me some money on buying a new game - probably gonna be Dragon Quest XI. I haven't played an FF game in a while so I'm due for another. I'm really more into Dragon Quest now though I think. Thoughts on Final Fantasy VII Remake? Is it worth a shot playing?
Yeah I heard about the MMORPG games. I'm not really too into MMORPGs but I heard they're really good also. Wasn't the DQ MMORPG only released in Japan doe? I've heard some pretty good things about FF14 I might do some research on it. I've never even touched FF11 lol.
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I don't really like to PC game cause I feel it's super hardcore and I've been warned about games on there like WoW. How it ruins people's lifes. lol But I mean I'm sure it's more mainstream now.
Yeah, I'm with you on the MMORPGs -- I don't enjoy them, simply because I don't have time for grinding and I prefer a storyline that keeps me moving. Like you, I've heard a lot of horror stories about people getting really obsessive about them and that's just not me.
As for the PC being hardcore, it's much more mainstream and the barrier to entry to lower now than it was fifteen years ago. I built my PC and swap out parts every few years for upgrades. I like that I can emulate and mod games on it, although 95% of the modding I do with games is enhancing the graphics. Like upgraded game textures, or new lighting filters... stuff like that. It can really bring older games into new life to upgrade the graphics. Although, depending on the game, some classics are better off untouched.
So you've played FFXV already and are gonna do it again but with mods?
When it was released on PC I played it only about 30% through and never finished it. I can't even remember why I put it down, but the time I spent in it was a lot of fun. I want to play through it all the way, although I'll be starting a new game. This time I'm going to finish it and play the DLC, though! The only mods I'll use will be to add new weapons and armor/outfits (such as weapons imported from Final Fantasy VII Remake).
UM. I loved Dragon Warrior VII for PSX. ... Dragon Quest VIII was good too on the PS2 I had recently just beat it for the first time last year.
They both had Nintendo 3DS releases about a decade ago, so those were the first times I played them. I liked VIII much more than VII. Apparently there was added content, new playable party members, and enhanced graphics, but the music got a major downgrade. Which was a bummer, because the soundtrack to DQVIII was amazing. I really liked the world map theme.
In fact... I don't think I ever finished DQVIII. Damn. I'm bad about that with jRPGS. I'll get really into a game for a while, but then life will get busy and I won't have time for games for a few weeks and by the time things slow down for me to pick it back up, I never end up returning to it.
I have multiple games that have fallen into this trap over the past few years... CrossCode, The Outer Worlds, I am Setsuna... I'm at the end game of pretty much each one of them but haven't crossed the finished line. Maybe I should buckle down and finish those at some point soon?
You see how long it's taken me to play LUNAR 2, and I've actually gone through it quicker than I expected. Playing through it with a friend sort of made me accountable and forced me to play it almost daily. I felt like I was letting you down if I waited too long between play sessions! Hahaha!
Ok, the way I read your last post it seemed like you nonchalantly defeated Zophar, lol. He's one of/if not the hardest boss in the game.
Nope, nothing nonchalant about it, hahaha! It was a tough boss battle. Definitely the hardest boss of the game. I kept fearing there was going to be a second phase and was relieved that when I beat it, I truly beat it.
The one thing I do miss the most is the food - but, I've been on a weight loss journey for 5 years and NOT being around all the American food I'm used to helped tremendously. Here, a typical meal is very "Japanese" (since we like Japan) and it's just a small serving of rice, "ulam" - the meat/or main dish to go with your rice, gulay - vegetables and we have lots of dipping sauces mostly soy sauce/fish sauce/vinegar mixed with garlic/onions/chili peppers etc. I'm quite satisfied with a piece of fried fish and a little veggies.
I really, really enjoy Asian and non-American food. I get tired of burgers and pizza. We went to this burger place a few towns over that was supposed to be amazing, and it was SUCH A DISAPPOINTMENT. $80 for four cheeseburgers and fries, one appetizer, one milkshake, and a tip for the waitress. It was overpriced and so incredibly disappointing. We generally only eat out once a week (twice max) simply because it's so expensive, especially seeing that there's four of us.
Today I made a Sunday roast with carrots, potatoes, and onions. It cooked in the crockpot all day and was so incredibly tender. It's one of those meals that it big and hearty and you can make two meals out of it. We'll have it for dinner again tomorrow, but we'll add a side of salad and maybe some corn.
Tuesday is my son's birthday, so we'll take him wherever he wants to go for food. As of right now he wants a burrito, haha.
As for Wednesday... Wednesday I'm making Japanese gyudon! I've never made it before, so I'm excited (and nervous) to try it out. I won't use any dashi seasoning in it, and I still need to buy the saki for the broth, but the rest of the ingredients I've already got covered: soy sauce, mirin, sugar, thinly-sliced ribeye, onions, ginger, etc. I'm also going to make some sushi with it as an appetizer, although I'll be using cooked shrimp or crab.
Food is one of my passions, haha...
Anyway, I'm going to stop here and game a little. I'm going to try and see what items I missed in Zophar's Domain and see if I can manually add them to my inventory using cheat codes. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to do so, It may just be time consuming. Gwah ha ha! All I really care about is the Dragon Helm, though.
Cheating isn't beneath me, when it comes to video games. I have like an hour a day max for gaming, so I'll take whatever shortcuts are afforded to me. Of course, this is only for single-player games. I wouldn't cheat in multiplayer games, as that's not fair to the other players.
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Okay, double post time!!!
So I did some research, and it looks like I didn't actually miss anything in Zophar's Domain! It turns out the walkthrough I was referencing was for the original game and NOT the Complete version of the game!
The guide I looked at was referencing a Storm Shield, Immortal Robe, King's Mail, Mage's Rod, and other items (including the Dragon Helm) all being acquired there in Zophar's Domain. It turns out that's only the case in the original game.
This walkthrough (https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps/197807-lunar-2-eternal-blue/faqs/52712), seems to confirm that I didn't miss anything, thank goodness. All I actually found were Silver Lights, Life Jewels, and the Fiend Ring -- despite battling every enemy and checking every corner for chests. I generally haven't missed items in this game (as far as I know). I'm probably going to use this walkthrough to get through the rest of the game.
I was able to re-recruit Leo, Jean, Ronfar, and Lemina based on their locations, and I traveled the world to visit each location (to record them in Lucia's Pendant for easy fast travel) and obtained most of the bromides. If I remember correctly, there's a REALLY powerful accessory in the Brave Labyrinth, but I'm going to skip it for now and check out the Dragon Cave/Tower from the game's prologue. I got to second floor and I'm going to stop here for tonight.
EDIT: The bromides seem a bit more tame than SSSC. Or maybe it's just me. I even got the fabled Bromide X, haha...
Also -- Luna is OG. Seeing her side-by-side with Lucia, she's the ultimate waifu of the LUNAR series. Not that I really prescribe to such a thing as a waifu, but she's clearly the best of all of them.
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Hey, Boo. So update from me: I'm trying to really concentrate on LUNAR 2's Epilogue. I'm probably gonna go to all the towns tomorrow. I kinda realized I really do love 90s/2000s JRPGs. I am actually quite odd and I like to re-play my favorites and see if my thoughts change while playing. I have no idea why I get new games. I just got a PS4 Pro but I still keep my PS3 out so I can play the PS1's fantastic JRPG library. I guess I like to know that I'll be pouring a lot of time into something that I know I'll enjoy. I guess I like familiarity. So yeah, concentrating on the Epilogue. And I'll see how I feel afterward, where my mind goes through.
I feel sorta different than I did yesterday, maybe it was beating Zophar? But I got so into Survivor all of a sudden. I'm kinda thinking about my mental health more and T.V. seems more I dunno "safe" for me right now, I'm still into JRPGs but after playing one of my favorites ever I need some time to evaluate my life and where I'm going with it.
I'm not as expert at gaming as you -- you seem to have it down to a schedule and timestamp. I'm just a simple, novice JRPG fan. I don't consider myself hardcore or anything I just know what I love.
I just wanted to tell you that doing all this with you was really fun for me and it's helped me out tremendously in my life. I'll never forget it.
I'm quasi-busy trying to organize my life and everything I have to do ea. day. I'm not as busy or work as hard as you, I just like to take my time with things and incorporate new things in my life slowly. I'm not a machine like you guys. I wish I was more hardcore of a gamer but I just pick my favorites and I'm content with those few games in my life. I have a very small JRPG collection but I cherish each game and wish to know more about each one.
TBH all I did today was just write in my journal. It's therapeutic for me just talking to myself. I don't know if I'm overwhelmed right now I feel weirdly calm, but I just need time, space to re-evaluate everything. It's been so nice getting to know you. Loved your stories.
I have things to do like my daily walks and re-hydration. I'm still working bit by bit on my farm growing flowers and vegetable seeds and stuff. It's not super hard work but I think about it a lot. I'm alone and work independently so it's just an adjustment for me. I don't really have a routine these days.
I'd love to talk to you more even about non-gaming things cause we seem to be similiar in that we both love to think about what we're thinking of all the time and what it means? in greater life? I wanted to pick your brain about what you think about group-think and telepathy and if it exists? I'm so random.
LUNAR 2 was so much fun for me, dude. Likewise I felt like having a friend made me more focused on ea. sesh.
My bad I don't have much to say tonight in an extremely small post. I've been on this natural high recently and I feel so spaced out sometimes. lol I'll try to holler at you tomorrow with something more insightful? Take care, doods. :D
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I am actually quite odd and I like to re-play my favorites and see if my thoughts change while playing. I have no idea why I get new games. I just got a PS4 Pro but I still keep my PS3 out so I can play the PS1's fantastic JRPG library. I guess I like to know that I'll be pouring a lot of time into something that I know I'll enjoy. I guess I like familiarity.
I actually read an article about just this. It's scientific that we often fall back on shows/movies/games we know because of the familiarity with it, and there's something innately comforting in that. I'm not really articulating it with justice, but yeah, it's a very real thing. I'm that way! I tend to watch Star Trek reruns and have them on when I get downtime. I like the storytelling and the optimism, and it's somewhat comforting knowing what is going to happen. It's all familiar.
I'm not as expert at gaming as you -- you seem to have it down to a schedule and timestamp. I'm just a simple, novice JRPG fan. I don't consider myself hardcore or anything I just know what I love.
Lol, What exactly is an expert at gaming? I wouldn't consider myself an expert by any means. I just use it as a hobby. It's no different than reading a good book, only that it allows us to control the characters. That's why I like jRPGs and don't tend to play multiplayer games or games that have an endless gameplay loop (MMORPGs, shooters like Fortnight or Call of Duty, etc). I need a good story and quite frankly, that trumps everything else -- it's more important than graphics or gameplay.
I just wanted to tell you that doing all this with you was really fun for me and it's helped me out tremendously in my life. I'll never forget it.
Yeah man, It's been a blast! We'll do it again after a little break. The friendship and gaming aspects make it a fun little adventure! :D
I'd love to talk to you more even about non-gaming things cause we seem to be similiar in that we both love to think about what we're thinking of all the time and what it means? in greater life? I wanted to pick your brain about what you think about group-think and telepathy and if it exists? I'm so random.
Hmmm... I mean, I believe in aliens. The universe has billions of stars, and then there are billions of billions of planets. It sure seems weird if we're the only living things out there in cosmos. However, I'm very much a man of science and largely a skeptic. I generally don't put much stock into cryptobiology (i.e. bigfoot or loch ness monster), although it's fun to think about.
Nor do I believe in ghosts or the supernatural. If they are real, I think they are likely inter-dimensional beings or minor hiccups in time rather than spirits of the dead. Like those who see ghosts are actually seeing visages of the past through some kind of space-time phenomena. Even that's a long-shot to me, though. I have yet to experience anything even remotely supernatural and there's nothing inherently scientific about it; it's hard to quantify and measure such in a scientifically-viable way. Maybe once we quantify and can measure the soul (beyond electrical impulse in the brain) we can understand more?
So I remain open to the idea, but again... highly skeptical. A more likely scenario is that those who want to believe are more likely to witness strange events. It's sort of like hypnotism - your openness and susceptibility to experience it makes it more likely to "work" on/for you. Not discounting it by any means, it may just explain why some people are more likely to experience strange happenings.
Which brings me to your question around telepathy... I don't know. I wouldn't say I believe in such things, but I don't discount it either. I guess I'm agnostic from that approach leaning on the skeptic-side. I'm just curious how it would even work given the laws of physics. As of yet, I'm not aware of humans being able to literally overwrite the laws of physics, but who knows!
All that being said... I think it makes for super interesting theories and it's super fun to talk about and think about.
I really like reading about the SPC Foundation and some creepypasta like the Backrooms. They're entirely fiction, of course, but take those ideas, throw in monsters, and they create some REALLY interesting reading material. It's richness for the imagination!
EDIT:
Part of the skeptic in me comes from growing up in the Chuch. I grew up in the Evangelical movement, where everyone in their mom was running up and down the aisles screaming, others were speaking in tongues, others were falling out on the floor and spasming while being "slain in the spirit." The majority of what I saw was largely fake and for show. You can see the psychology happening in many instances -- people would fall out but then open their eyes just enough to see if anyone was watching. Others would literally be trying to outdo each other with the screaming and the speaking in tongues, and it was clear they were just shouting out random syllables.
Not to discount anyone's personal experience, but I'm pretty confident that some of what I saw was absolutely fake. I try to tread lightly because spirituality and religion are very personal affairs, but I can't deny the falsity of at least some of it. That, in turn, makes me somewhat skeptic of quite a lot of things that may not make sense.
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Hey, Boo. My bad for the strange post last night. I was so spaced out yesterday I don't know why I think it had something to do with beating Zophar/beating LUNAR 2 and I sorta imploded inside of myself cause it's such a favorite game of mine. lol
Well I like to defy science somewhat. You know how they say the definition of crazy is "Doing something over and over and expecting different results?" I tend to do the same things over and over. I play LUNAR/or one of the Working Designs games every Christmas ea. year. I seemingly tend to watch Survivor seasons over-and-over. Ofc, I do it bec I have fun doing it. But I'm really into social experiments, and instead of using other people, I'd rather use myself as a test subject so I re-watch or re-play the same things just to play around w/ the thoughts in my head - Do I have the same thoughts when I re-watch again as I did last time? Why do I like to repeat things over and over, bec it's fun? Is that a good-enough reason? Or maybe I just have so much time on my hands and and playing around with boredom. Idle hands are the Devil's plaything.
I just find science, research articles on mental illness and doctors/social workers who think they're such experts on the matter so annoying why bec they studied it in class and have a piece of paper? Sometimes I think average people who deal with it everyday, say they have a child who has issues w/ it, are more-of experts on it than anyone else. That's just how I feel. You know sometimes I feel I don't give myself enough credit I pour my heart, soul, time + energy into JRPGs + Survivor research but just bec I'm not a professor on it at some Ivy-League doesn't mean I'm just a novice or still aspiring. I mean I think a lot of normal gamers are 'experts' just bec they've been gaming since they were like 5 ye. ol.
Lol, What exactly is an expert at gaming?
Lol you're right that came out kinda funny. I just mean you have the whole 2 monitors set up, a PC meant for gaming, probably a Steam account. You seem to post here at the Compendium about gaming a lot. You have a very busy lifes but still get time in to game each day by way of scheduling/time management.
Compared to me-- I have a very small library of JRPGs. I don't PC game, I just use a laptop to post on messageboards about Survivor I actually shied away from public forums about JRPGs when I was younger because I was annoyed there were other people out there who were better at the games than me and that made me feel disappointment in myself as a gamer, I only went on GameFAQs but still I was disappointed in myself as a teenager cause I could never fit in time to create a FAQ and instead I focused on homework and school, I don't think I have the mind or body to sit down and game for 17 hour marathons anymore.
When I have a free schedule I tend to do other things because I think of my Mental Health now and I tend to just watch T.V. instead of opting to game, just bec I'm in it for the long haul and not short-term stimulations.
Lol, I guess my question came out kinda weird. I was just wondering if you believe, say Star Trek is on every Thursday night at 8:00 P.M. and all the fans sit down together at home to watch at that time. Group-Think. Do you think everyone that watches the show has the same thoughts or reactions to it?
Telepathy.--I never had any brothers or sisters, I don't have a twin. But they say twins can read each other's minds sometimes. I'm sure it's not exactly verbatim but say a certain facial reaction or nuance can give away what a person's thinking? I was also wondering if people who are deeply in love can read ea. other's minds, like do you and your wife send each other love messages through thought while you're both at work? LOL
Cause sometimes I feel my best friends can talk to me sometimes. Like when I'm just thinking to myself sometimes I re-play conversations I've had with my friends in the past (friends from America). Like they're like What's up? and I'm like Hey. lol
I'm not talking straight-up verbatim communication thru minds but just like do you think facial expressions or certain looks can give away what a person is thinking? Or sometimes things I've read in letters we've sent each other.
I'm waiting for a delivery right now from Shopee and I'm about to go on my daily walk so I have to go for a bit. I might come back and double-post. I also have to give one of my dogs a bath.
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Hey, Boo. Part 2.
So, I tried playing the Epilogue this morning while I was having my morning coffee and I just couldn't do it. So I waited til the afternoon-after dinner. You're getting through the Epilogue much faster than I am, that's for sure! I don't know how you do it you seem to get through dungeons and towns lickity-split! You run through your sessions. Anyway. I'm in East Nota right now (I'm just gonna run through the towns in order-and get the characters in the order you got them the first time) I'm trying to get through the bit where you get the Rememberizer cause I love that thing. Re-watching all the anime cutscenes is the best.
Anyway. So that's where I am.
I was on my daily walk though and I was rehashing through some of the recent posts we've been exchanging and I felt concerned. You mentioned living minimally and I have nothing against that but since we both come from the richest most blessed nation in the world, I was just concerned why you would do that in the first place? I live in the Philippines right now, and I don't know what you know about poverty or the Third-World but people here "live minimally" because they have to, not because they want to. They just don't have the money that we are used to! I imagine them going on YouTube (cellphones are pretty accessible here, though) and seeing people living minimally in the First World and they probably scoff and think why would they ever do that?
I kinda equate it to when I learn someone is a vegetarian I immediately ask them if they are Pescatarian (someone who can't eat meat at all or they get sick) because why would you do that if you don't have to or need to? Personally, I think it's just some frou-frou reason like they don't like cute animals getting killed, but if you think realistically or survival-wise... your body can take meat so why deny it of it if you want to be strong, smart, healthy? I'm not taking away that's it's noble but I just question it is all. Anyway.
Also,--I love that you brought up the bidet I have sooo many opinions on that. First of all, you made it clear that you're as generic of an American whiteboy as can be ... family living in the U.S. for generations. I just wanna get your opinion on certain . things. Americans always think their way is the best, the only way, and everyone else is weird for doing things how they do it. (Like how everybody made fun of the Japanese and Michael Jackson for wearing masks but look where everybody is now.) Like, for me, dry-wiping TP is not cool like if I'm at work and really need to go, it just doesn't seem clean during the day. There's never any access to water in a public restroom stall. I got used to it though, living in America all my life for 26 years so lol. But once I used a bidet here in the Philippines my life changed, I started to think about hygiene and everyday daily cleanliness more. And I notice Filipino people are very clean people All About Hygiene. I just wonder why Americans are so against it when obviously using hot water to wash yourself after you go to the bathroom is so obviously cleaner and better for you and other people around you. Some Americans tell me they take a shower after they go in the morning, but what if you're at work? Are you just gonna hold it in ... . Kinda reminds me of that "joke" that men don't eat quiche, or Real Men Don't Wear Pink. Like are you that stubborn and simple-minded? ???Lolll. . . . ..
It kinda makes me think Americans are scared of another country having it better than them, or doing something right-er lol. They always think they're the best and defend the American way to death, and beyond them. lol
Anyway those are just somethings I was thinking about on my walk. Sorry/My bad if I seem like I'm interrogating you but I'M JUST SO CURIOUS what you think. I've never really had a white friend before. I've made it clear that I didn't have the best experience in HS-- and decided right there not to stay in the US and I really had no future there, so why try? I kinda see you as a pen-pal rn cause you're in the US and I'm here in the Philippine Islands. You're Like My American Friend. :)
So yeah I got some LUNAR 2 time in before I go on my Survivor binge tonight and do all my self-care stuff. Hope everything's going well for you Boo and hope the family's doing ok!!! Take a bite out of a burrito for me I miss those things. Lol :D
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Sorry for the lapse in response, we're on vacation and my response time will be pretty abysmal for the next week or so.
I just mean you have the whole 2 monitors set up, a PC meant for gaming, probably a Steam account. You seem to post here at the Compendium about gaming a lot. You have a very busy lifes but still get time in to game each day by way of scheduling/time management.
Creating the perfect gaming setup with the PC and swapping out parts is part of the fun. Like, I enjoy that part of it just as much as playing the actual video games. I'm not one of those guys that has an incredible PC with the very best graphics cards (far from it); but I still enjoy putting a PC together: making sure to get the right parts, doing proper cable management, ensuring good air flow, etc. There's a lot of it that is all about optimization. But again, that's part of the hobby for me and many people who are into PC gaming -- but obviously not everyone finds that element fun. Same with modding - I like twiddling with the game files and trying to increase the graphics on the game through mods.
As for time management, I just have very little free time. I work and am in transit anywhere between 10 and 12 hours a day, five days a week, and then I come home and have to be a dad and cook dinner, help with homework, clean and do chores, handle the animals, etc... I enjoy gaming and it's a good stress reliever, so if I want to do it, I sort of have to force it in and be very intentional about it. I simply have very little free time, even on weekends, but I guess I somehow find a way to make it all work.
After all, I'm a project manager at work. I literally optimize processes, manage budgets / schedules / resources. My job is to ensure that are able to estimate targets and then hit them... every single day. So I'd like to think I'm good at bringing those skills home with me. After doing it for fifteen years, I'd like to think I'm a good steward of my time.
I just use a laptop to post on messageboards about Survivor I actually shied away from public forums about JRPGs when I was younger because I was annoyed there were other people out there who were better at the games than me and that made me feel disappointment in myself as a gamer, I only went on GameFAQs but still I was disappointed in myself as a teenager cause I could never fit in time to create a FAQ and instead I focused on homework and school, I don't think I have the mind or body to sit down and game for 17 hour marathons anymore.
Bah, you were just being too hard on yourself!
I also think some of that is just getting older. I remember when Kingdom Hearts 2 came out I literally binged it and did nothing but play it for like 4 or 5 days. I finished it at 100%, including all of the optional side quests. Nowadays I couldn't do that even if I did happen to have the free time. My attention span won't allow me to put that amount of time into something, and my body will be screaming at me for being stationary for too long, haha! After about two hours of gaming my brain turns to mush and I have to move on to a different task.
I was just wondering if you believe, say Star Trek is on every Thursday night at 8:00 P.M. and all the fans sit down together at home to watch at that time. Group-Think. Do you think everyone that watches the show has the same thoughts or reactions to it?
Ah, as for group-think -- I think we all react differently. Keeping the example on Star Trek, Star Trek Discovery has a black female captain and several gay and non-binary characters. Some people consider it "too woke" or "too action-packed" (since it's no longer episodic). Opinions all are over the place and reactions to episodes are equally diverse. Some love it, some hate it. I don't really think group think would apply here, but...
Group-think is definitely a real thing, though.
It's sort of... like attracts like. Most people are drawn to others like them; people that look the same, people that think the same or hold the same belief-systems. Take incels, for example. They tend to find each other and form communities online, and that sort of echo chamber of belief just amplified because they're all taking unconscious comfort in people who think and act the same way as themselves. Same with the MAGA crowd. It's all just group-think, they're all stuck in an echo-chamber and think that everyone thinks the same way because they only surround themselves with other people who think the same way.
That's why I think it's important to embrace differences and just stay open-minded. Differences can be bad, but they're more likely to be cool and unique.
Telepathy.--I never had any brothers or sisters, I don't have a twin. But they say twins can read each other's minds sometimes. I'm sure it's not exactly verbatim but say a certain facial reaction or nuance can give away what a person's thinking? I was also wondering if people who are deeply in love can read ea. other's minds, like do you and your wife send each other love messages through thought while you're both at work? LOL
I've always heard that about twins, too. Normally it's moreso with identical twins (but not limited to them), which would make sense -- they spawned from the same zygote and are quite literally formed from the same DNA. They might end up being very different people, but on a genetic level, they're still (nearly) identical. Genetics also plays a role in our behaviors and manner of thinking (although so does upbringing and environment), so I could see how twins would think alike - it's at least partially-influenced by their genetics to be similar!
As for my wife and I... we are very, very different. We think very differently and have very different beliefs. BUT! We have been together so long we are pretty good about predicting how the other will respond or what the other is thinking. That just comes with knowing someone really, really well. At least for us.
Take for example a burger place we went to recently. I think I mentioned it another post. It wasn't very good, and as we were sitting there eating it (I just know my wife's tastes and likes/dislikes), I knew she probably wasn't enjoying her food very much. Lo and behold, when we left the restaurant I told her I didn't think she enjoyed it very much, and she confirmed that it was exactly as I thought, hahaha!
I'm not talking straight-up verbatim communication thru minds but just like do you think facial expressions or certain looks can give away what a person is thinking?
Oh definitely!!! Non-verbal communication is probably more prevalent than actual communication. That's why online communication can be tricky sometimes. Sarcasm and nuance doesn't always come across well. Lord knows I've pissed people off online trying to be funny, but the intended humor went over their head (at no fault of their own) and they thought I was being rude or serious.
You're getting through the Epilogue much faster than I am, that's for sure! I don't know how you do it you seem to get through dungeons and towns lickity-split! You run through your sessions.
For the epilogue, I simply used a walkthrough so I knew exactly where to go. If it makes you feel any better, I'm still at the prologue dungeon and haven't played in a few days!
You mentioned living minimally and I have nothing against that but since we both come from the richest most blessed nation in the world, I was just concerned why you would do that in the first place?
Probably simple-living would be a more apt term for my desires, but I do think minimal living is an ideal. Americans - and much of the first-world - take things for granted, and quite frankly, are so freaking wasteful. We produce insane amounts of waste, we take-take-take from the environment without thinking through the costs. Minimalistic living tends to be a better state of equilibrium. Eating less meet, using less electricity (which is largely derived from burning fossil-fuel), recycling -- they're all ideals that benefit everyone on the planet. After all, we're simply borrowing the planet from the children of tomorrow. My children will inherit the mess we make, so if I can lessen that impact even a little bit, why not? First world or third world, it won't make much of a difference when things get really dire.
Americans always think their way is the best, the only way, and everyone else is weird for doing things how they do it. (Like how everybody made fun of the Japanese and Michael Jackson for wearing masks but look where everybody is now.)
I don't think that's an American thing. Not at all. Most cultures tend to be a little uncomfortable by the nuance and habits of other cultures that are different. Different is different.
Although there's definitely an American "pride" in doing things the best way. Obviously not all Americans are that way, and the Americans that are actually exposed to other cultures tend to be much more open-minded. I think many of the Americans that are so obsessed with "America's the best" and all that nonsense are rural Americans who haven't really such much outside of their small town and seen the rest of the country, let alone the world.
I mean, if we're being honest, even the United States is made up of dozens of unique regional sub-cultures: even the Southeast where I am has very different cultures. The rednecks of Alabama are different from the rednecks of Tennessee, let alone the differences in Appalachian hillbillies versus NC mountain folk. So on and so forth. All of that demographic tends to be grouped together, when in fact, they're all very different sub-cultures that only look the same when looking at at a glance.
Sorry/My bad if I seem like I'm interrogating you but I'M JUST SO CURIOUS what you think. I've never really had a white friend before.
I don't mind at all! Obviously I'm an open book, and I don't mind fielding questions. I probably am not the true typical American, as I'm much more open-minded than most people. I try (and generally succeed) at not being judgmental and open-minded about most things. As long as they aren't hurting anyone, anyway.
As for being the token white friend, I don't mind. One of my friends is a gay dude, and he always joked that I was his only straight guy friend. He generally hung out exclusively with others in the LGBTQ+ community, but he said none of them liked jRPGs and video games. That just so happened to be what we bonded over, so I was the only person in his life he could talk to about video games and stuff. It was just a funny friendship. We've sort of fallen out of touch since I moved a few years ago, so I'm going to reach out to him and see how he is!
It does suck that you had such a bad experience growing up here in the United States, though. That experience is obviously not exclusive to you. We've talked about it before, but the Asian-American demographic really doesn't have much representation anywhere here. It's really unfortunate.
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Hey, Boo. I was refreshing for your reply I thought I had scared you off!! I just wanted to tell you I think you're really smart and you have a way of explaining things using smart-words but at the same time I understand it as well. I'm such a simpleton like I have my 2 favorite hobbies and that's all I really do w/ my life. I was like chomping at the bit waiting for your response the last few days I have EVEN MORE questions now. You seem like you paid attention in class during college, is-all.
So as for LUNAR 2 - I'm super trying to concentrate on it now during the day, I've like stopped binging Survivor cause I'm out of gas on it at the moment. So I've crawled back to video games. I just re-recruited Jean I thought I was gonna get Ronfar first but he's not in his house in Larpa. I'm skipping town to town in order the first time you did it and now I've stopped in Meribia cause it's such a huge town w/ so many NPCs to talk to. I'll prob hop on it throughout the day my goal is to re-recruit everyone by the time I go to bed.
UM. So as you know I like Survivor a lot. They make a big deal on the show about Corporate America vs. Traditional Midwestern values. Redneck vs. the City Slicker. I was thinking just now about giving the show/America another shot. You mentioned Asians don't really get represented at all on T.V. but I'm sure there's so many reasons why. I bet most Asians don't wanna even go on T.V. as most of them in the U.S. have that "stay in your own lane, keep your head down and work, not my chair not my problem" mentality. It's not that they want to be invisible but I think kinda deep down inside they do - I just think they don't want to be involved in social problems like things that can happen when you're on the street i.e. being robbed, some weirdo harassing you, your boss's sexual innuendos or something. I think we'd rather just watch white people on T.V.. Take me for example, whenever they go to an Asian locale on the show I kinda wanna be a judge on if America can get everything accurate about the culture. Most of the time they do - but there's always something a little "off" or foreign about it to me maybe it's just the editing?
Not everything's gonna be perfect. Or maybe I'm just a hard judge?
I was also thinking about how you mentioned your job was kinda "soulless." I kinda get that. I used to live in San Francisco and a lotta the people there complained that all the techies were moving into the city and erecting mostly empty office buildings and taking away the culture of San Francisco like unique small businesses/exotic restaurants. Kinda makes me wonder about what America's "culture" really is? Like cheeseburgers, sex drugs & rock n' roll, BIG MONEY, Spend Money, vacation vacation vacation? Anyway. lol I always felt like the show was challenging me to move back home to my country and to see if I can do it after growing up in all the rich excess of America? Well now that I'm here, I'm thinking about giving the country another shot to win me over? There was a point where America was pretty dead to me. And I can get over what happened in HS cause I think I really don't care anymore? I think there's so many other small little details like I'm still a U.S. Citizen, I have a Passport, etc.
I just have this fabricated fantasy that America is The Empire.
Solaris floating in the sky.
The Enlightened Ones who look down on Earthdwellers.
Zophar jumping from planet to planet reaching his tentacles all over.
I truly believe all those artifacts from JRPGs are just symbolism for America's huge influence on the rest of the world.
I think it's pretty fun being an American. Like people here definitely look at me differently because of it. And people always have their own perceptions on us around the world.
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And I'm back! I may be a day or two late in responses for the next week or so, just as I get back into the swing of things and get caught up with all we have going on both at home and at work. I need a vacation from the vacation!
So as for LUNAR 2 - I'm super trying to concentrate on it now during the day, I've like stopped binging Survivor cause I'm out of gas on it at the moment. So I've crawled back to video games. I just re-recruited Jean I thought I was gonna get Ronfar first but he's not in his house in Larpa.
If you haven't gotten him yet, he's there in Raculi! He's in a house with Mauri. It took me a hot minute to find them both, but I did eventually find him. He was the second last party member I re-recruited (Leo was last on account of having to go back through an entire dungeon to reach him).
You mentioned Asians don't really get represented at all on T.V. but I'm sure there's so many reasons why. I bet most Asians don't wanna even go on T.V. as most of them in the U.S. have that "stay in your own lane, keep your head down and work, not my chair not my problem" mentality. ... Most of the time they do - but there's always something a little "off" or foreign about it to me maybe it's just the editing?
I feel that Asian Americans are as much American as, say, Irish Americans, or African Americans. One can still cling to the "old culture" of their country of origin while still embracing and being part of the current American culture. I don't think it has to be one or the other.
But you're definitely right, Asian cultures tend to really focus on perfectionism and grinding in life. Japan, for example, takes this to the nth degree, haha. I could see a desire to avoid the spotlight, but at the same time... how many Asian leads do we have in American cinema that *aren't* leaning into the whole Asian culture angle? Crazy Rich Asians, Fresh Off the Boat , and Kim's Convenience all come to mind.
Kinda makes me wonder about what America's "culture" really is? Like cheeseburgers, sex drugs & rock n' roll, BIG MONEY, Spend Money, vacation vacation vacation?
I think we have so many cultures it's hard to nail it all down to one, but I think Americans are generally very prideful, work very hard (almost to the point of corporate slavery), and there's always the pursuit of the American dream: making lots of money and living a comfortable life. The food staples would definitely be pizza, burgers, and fries, though... And maybe BBQ down here in the south.
Anyway. lol I always felt like the show was challenging me to move back home to my country and to see if I can do it after growing up in all the rich excess of America? Well now that I'm here, I'm thinking about giving the country another shot to win me over? There was a point where America was pretty dead to me. And I can get over what happened in HS cause I think I really don't care anymore? I think there's so many other small little details like I'm still a U.S. Citizen, I have a Passport, etc.
You can always be a child of both worlds! Nothing wrong with that! The nice thing about the Philippines is how much farther the USD will go compared to here. How's the healthcare access there? Affordable and high quality?
I hear that's one of the biggest cultural dividers here in America. It's really easy to find high quality, advanced healthcare... but it's insanely expensive. So you can essentially get the best healthcare in the world here (especially for specialties like oncology), but you're also going to pay a premium.
I truly believe all those artifacts from JRPGs are just symbolism for America's huge influence on the rest of the world.
Magna carta. It's definitely a driver in a lot of media, that's for sure. The funny thing is, it's not really just an American thing, IMO. It is right now in 2023, sure, but if you look at history the concept has been repeating for centuries. The Mongolian Empire, the Roman Empire, the British Empire. America is just one more power-hungry empire that will eventually break from within and someone new will take its place. Don't get me wrong, I'm not condoning America (far from it), but it's sort of par for the course.
I think it's pretty fun being an American. Like people here definitely look at me differently because of it. And people always have their own perceptions on us around the world.
Curiously, how are you treated differently? Good? Bad? Indifferent?
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OMG, hey Boo--!! I feel like I'm working at an office and I just got an e-mail from my boss whenever I'm talking to you, lol. Instead of taking an extended lunch to play golf we're talking about JRPGs!
OMG, dude. I've been popping LUNAR 2 in so much just to get through all the towns again in order and to re-recruit everyone and it's taking forever. I'm talking to all the townspeople again, so. I just have to re-get Ronfar and I'll be done. Ofc, he's in like the last town ever. Once I get all the characters I think it's just all the extra dungeons and no one really gets a line-change so I'll be good to go.
I was thinking last night, "What says I'm American?" when I was thinking about my U.S. Citizenship and my passport. Does this piece of paper say I'm a true, blue American now? I think it goes much deeper than that. I grew up in San Francisco and there's a rich Asian population there. It was actually funny because the kids- my friends would scold me if I ever did anything "whitewashed" like something white people do that I saw on T.V.. They were very about the traditional things we do back in our home country and acting like we're American now and just like the rest of the people there was strictly a no-no.
But then I moved to HS in 2001, and in Freshman year my whole, entire school was basically all-white kids and just me looking how I did was like a no-no for them. Like you had to be whitewashed and a little bit extra for them to even acknowledge your presence. This was before Tik Tok so there was a bit of racism in the air coming from both camps. The white kids thought they were superior and had the numbers / The minority kids would camp out together in empty classrooms and exclaim "Minority power!" So- It just seemed like a hostile environment. I didn't wanna to get stabbed or get in a fight so I left after that schoolyear.
So I think it really depends on where you live. San Francisco, New York, a lot of the major cities on the coast you're gonna find a lot of Asians and minorities in general so it's far more easier to "fit in" when there's more of you around. Nevada, where I went to school, or more of the states in the middle of the U.S. you're probably not gonna find a lot of minorities so you definitely stand out more and you're gonna be singled out by just the way you look. I mean, I saw that movie Deliverance. I wouldn't want to visit like Arkansas and run into a crazy hillbilly, redneck, or hick that's for sure.
So I've lived in America all my life. But I still don't know what it's all about really. I think there's way too much media pouring out of America that it's hard to know what's really true anymore. There's just so much about us that it's hard to pinpoint it down. I mean, I'm Asian and the staple foods in our household is definitely gonna be rice. I tend to think of America as more Spanish-leaning, like cause the language itself incorporates a lot of Spanglish. "That's kinda blunt and Spanglish." So I'm more burritos, taco night, refried bean dip w/ sour cream, Spanish dirty rice, rice and beans, taco salad. People say Texas is very Tex-Mex, but California is very much Spanish and Mexican-leaning too you know. I have a lot of Latino friends back home and I miss them dearly.
Um. I'm not really sure on the healthcare access as nothing's really happened to me/us here so far. When I got here I went to the ear/nose/throat doctor cause my ears kept popping out and I paid like maybe $2 for the appointment and the medicine she gave me lol. My Mom goes to her regular check-ups, she just got back from one actually, but that's their personal business and I don't really ask about it. There's actually a lot of doctors and clinics here - , it's very "Asian" how you have a dentist or an optometrist every few blocks. The clinics themselfs are not what we're used to in the U.S. usually it's a building but here sometimes they build the clinics in their home and there's a very homey feeling. It's definitely not as advanced as the U.S. or first world but it's not the dirty hovel most people think of when they think Third World I mean if you have money you'll be able to get whatever you need here so don't worry about it! You also have a lot of locals prescribing local herbs or ingredients as cures for certain ailments like "gout" or "appendicitis" and what-not. A lot of witch-doctor-y. I think for the most part Filipinos here are pretty thin and healthy so they avoid a lot of the symptoms we come down with in the United States.
Sometimes I wonder if I should feed the body that is America anymore? It seems like it doesn't need the food. And like I know when I say "America is a weird, weird place" like it's not gonna affect anything at all cause it's such an Entity anyway. I don't think one ex-Pat from a faraway land saying America sucks is really gonna do any damage to the Big It Machine anyway. The only thing I still really like is Survivor. But then when I turn the tube off and relive my life I remember how much I hated life in the U.S.
Uhhhhh... Usually people here think I'm "Canno" or American/White. Like when they first see me. They just look at my face a lot, and my body cause I'm so big and huge. When I tell them both my parents a full-blooded Filipino they have doubt/or they don't believe me. I tell them I'm 100% Filipino and they just don't believe me. lol They usually assume I can't speak the language but I can. I think they get delighted when they can converse with me. I have no idea when I turn around and walk away and what they say behind my back though?
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Hallo, Boo. Sorry for the off-topic minutiae.
Anyways. I just bit the bullet and rounded up Ronfar, and then Leo. So the whole party's complete now. I was gonna take a sneak-peek in the Official Working Designs Strategy Guide about which of the epilogue dungeons to start off with first. I'll do that tomorr-y.
GOD. That took forever going to all the towns again. Anyway I'll always be here and ready whenever you are.
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Hey man,
I'm back in the saddle, too. My posts will continue to probably be every other day for the foreseeable future on account of real life responsibilities being in full swing. Probably until summer and school gets out.
I was thinking last night, "What says I'm American?" when I was thinking about my U.S. Citizenship and my passport. Does this piece of paper say I'm a true, blue American now?
I think the passport definitely says you're a US citizen, but I'd like to think (and maybe this is overly optimistic on my part) that anyone who lives in America (or is an ex-pat) can really claim to be American. Different from the legal definition, I'd like to think it's a state-of-mind. Who knows? I'm glad I don't have to define these things, as I don't want to define anything for anyone else, haha... that's on them to decide! After all, who better to know than the individual!
But then I moved to HS in 2001, and in Freshman year my whole, entire school was basically all-white kids and just me looking how I did was like a no-no for them. Like you had to be whitewashed and a little bit extra for them to even acknowledge your presence. This was before Tik Tok so there was a bit of racism in the air coming from both camps. The white kids thought they were superior and had the numbers / The minority kids would camp out together in empty classrooms and exclaim "Minority power!" So- It just seemed like a hostile environment. I didn't wanna to get stabbed or get in a fight so I left after that schoolyear.
This is sad. I went to three different high schools (my dad moved a lot for work during those years) and the second one I went to was in an affluent area with lots of diversity. Asian, Jewish, Middle Eastern, Anglo - there was A LOT of representation and maybe I've naive, but it felt like everyone pretty much got along and respected each other. I dunno, though, that may have just been my friends and I. I hung with mostly white people, but we also had friends that weren't Anglo.
My second school was up in ND and it was much more polarizing. The school was like 98% white with only a very few African Americans, Asians, and a few Native Americans. Everyone but the Native Americans were intermingled (there wasn't enough Asians to have an Asian clique, for example), but the experience you described about subtle racism from all parties was pretty much what I saw with the Native Americans. It made me really sad and still does. My heart goes out to the Native Americans and all they've been through as a result of colonialism.
So I've lived in America all my life. But I still don't know what it's all about really. I think there's way too much media pouring out of America that it's hard to know what's really true anymore.
Anyone with two brain cells still in the US doesn't know what to trust with the media, either. CNN and Fox News and all the other "news" corporations are bottom feeders that thrive on disinformation and strife. It's unfortunately, but it's true -- it's all toxic.
I tend to think of America as more Spanish-leaning, like cause the language itself incorporates a lot of Spanglish. "That's kinda blunt and Spanglish." So I'm more burritos, taco night, refried bean dip w/ sour cream, Spanish dirty rice, rice and beans, taco salad. People say Texas is very Tex-Mex, but California is very much Spanish and Mexican-leaning too you know. I have a lot of Latino friends back home and I miss them dearly.
Yeah, America has definitely had a boom of immigrants from Latin American countries, and with it all that Latin culture. I love it. The food, the passion, it's great. I love being able to experience other cultures (and not be accused of cultural appropriation). It's hard to find good Tex-Mex where I'm at now; all the Mexican restaurants are the same and they're all only so-so. Half of the time I don't order off the menu and ask the waiters/waitresses what they'd eat, so sometimes I get surprised with something a little more authentic.
"Tacos Authenticos" is one of my favorite dishes here. Corn tortillas with diced white onions, cilantro, and lime, plus a meat of your choice. I'm not afraid so I've tried it all, and not just the carintas or the carne asada. I've tried beef tongue and cheek and all kinds of things in the tacos.
I'm not a huge fan of offal per se, but I'm not afraid to at least try it. Is there much offal use in Filipino cooking? Just the other day I had some chitterlings from a soul food restaurant. They were so-so, haha...
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Anyway, onto the gaming front...
Brave Labyrinth
I had started the Dragon Ruins (the very first dungeon in the game), but ended up leaving and I instead went to the Brave Labyrinth north of Horam. I remembered there being an item that made the Epilogue content a bit easier, but I couldn't remember what it was.
So anyway, I finished the dungeon today. I opted NOT to use the walkthrough to solve the various puzzles, and even though it wasn't a particularly long dungeon, it had quite a lot of battles from all the wrong "answers" I picked as I proceeded. I finally got to the end, though, and defeated the boss.
The item is awesome and I'm glad I changed my mind and decided to go here first. Ronfar got the item for now, although I may end up giving it to Jean later.
I've headed back to the Dragon Ruins and have saved at the entrance.
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Hallo, again, Boo. Good day!
With the go-to signal from you I went ahead and did the Brave Labyrinth this evening. Usually I follow the WD guidebook and do this last, and the Hero's Talisman winds up being useless so good call on doing this dungeon first! You really know your stuff! I want to play more but I'll just follow your lead.
Lol that you call each other Anglo. I never knew that. Usually I'm with my Asian or Latino friends, or it's just minorities with maybe like the token whiteboy friend lol. I haven't really intermingled with white people that much until I got a job and they were there. I was best friends with a white kid in HS though and we hung out everyday, I tried to friend request him on Facebook but I think he's moved on or got his own thing going on in his life now. So. It's fine! C: The white kids I worked with were cool, a bit lazy on the job (noticeable) but they were aiight to talk to. I never really had close-close white friends aside from jobs and college parties where if I were invited to one it's be a mystery bag? whether whites were invited. Usually we avoid them cause it's pretty risky as they might be undercover cops, and we smoked and drank a lot. I usually had my guard up when a white kid approaches me at school doing his drug dealing thing, again risky as they might be undercover.
I try not to consume much American media anymore. As I said before--I got really bored/tired of seeing just whites/no minority representation on T.V. and I really am infatuated and enraptured w/ just Survivor right now, so I do plenty of research and analysis on just my one fav T.V. show. I found what I like so I'm sticking to it. It's nice people are more woke now but it's a little too little too late, I'm way too jaded now to even care lol.
Sometimes I wonder, besides white, what America slightly leans towards and I just guessed Spanish because it's the second language, amirite? A lot of English incorporates a lot of Spanglish now. So.
I had to look up what offal means I thought it was a religious ceremony lol, I just call it innards. And yes, we don't waste in Filipino cooking they bbq things such-as chicken intestines and stuff and sell it on the side of the street here along with blood sausage, the heads and feet of the chickens and stuff. I don't really eat that stuff but some people like it. I don't want my dinner staring me back in the face.
Sometimes I'm curious to try more white people/American food if you can give me some ideas... I mentioned I've been regularly eating couscous lately, I dunno if that's popular to bring to the office. I'm very interested in stuff like pasta salads and such. I love the dressings. C:
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I went ahead and did the Dragon Ruins this morning, buddy.
Which dungeon do you want to tackle next?
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With the go-to signal from you I went ahead and did the Brave Labyrinth this evening. Usually I follow the WD guidebook and do this last, and the Hero's Talisman winds up being useless so good call on doing this dungeon first! You really know your stuff! I want to play more but I'll just follow your lead.
I can't take all the credit. I've also consulted Google and Gamefaqs a few times to get recommendations, haha...
Lol that you call each other Anglo. I never knew that.
I'll be honest, that's may or may not be a thing. I have no idea what white people call themselves. It just sounded good to me! :D Regardless, I'm now your token white internet pen pal! Haha. Your Anglo-bro or something.
Sometimes I wonder, besides white, what America slightly leans towards and I just guessed Spanish because it's the second language, amirite? A lot of English incorporates a lot of Spanglish now. So.
Yup. Definitely Spanish.
I had to look up what offal means I thought it was a religious ceremony lol, I just call it innards. And yes, we don't waste in Filipino cooking they bbq things such-as chicken intestines and stuff and sell it on the side of the street here along with blood sausage, the heads and feet of the chickens and stuff. I don't really eat that stuff but some people like it. I don't want my dinner staring me back in the face.
Haha! I've had mixed experiences, but I'm pretty open-minded and will at least try just about anything. Chicken hearts, pigs feet, intestines, ovaries, you name it... Like you said, it makes for cheap street food. To me the texture tends to ruin these things more than the actual taste. Like, I had some chicken heart a while back at a place called TwoTenJack. They tasted really good, but they were really tough and chewy and there was definitely some heart cartilage or something in there that sort of turned me off. I had two and was done.
I really like yakitori and street skewers as a whole.
Sometimes I'm curious to try more white people/American food if you can give me some ideas... I mentioned I've been regularly eating couscous lately, I dunno if that's popular to bring to the office. I'm very interested in stuff like pasta salads and such. I love the dressings.
Oh man, I wouldn't even know where to start. My black friends have told me that they think white people food is, like, casseroles. I dunno. My wife and kids like it when I do a slowcooker roast with mashed potatoes and gravy, candied carrots, green been casserole, squash casserole, stuff like that.
Probably the absolute whitest meal I can think of is chicken and stuffing "casserole."
First you make either homemade or boxed stuffing... I like to just buy a box of pre-made stuffing mix, but then I jazz it up - I toast some bread in the oven, rip it up, add some more seasoning (oregano, garlic powder, salt, pepper). Add in 2 eggs. I then dice an onion and about the same amount of celery, and I boil them in chicken stock until soft. Sometimes I'll throw in a can of cream of chicken soup, depending of if I mind the extra calories. I then hand mix it all really well and put it in a greased or sprayed glass baking pan.
Then you take several chicken breasts, maybe cut them longways to make them thinner, and season on both sides with garlic powder, salt, pepper, and paprika. Lay it on top of the raw stuffing mix.
Last, you take a can of cream of mushroom soup, a small container of sour cream, and throw in some paprika. Mix it until it's well blended, and then you layer it on top of the stuffing mix and chicken breast.
Throw it in the oven for around 30 minutes at maybe 400 degrees and you have a moist, hearty, all-in-one chicken and stuffing casserole. I'll then add a few sides: mashed potatoes, green beans, maybe some fresh corn cut from the cob, and maybe a dinner roll.
It's definitely not an every day meal. I like to do it moreso on a Sunday or a rainy day. I tried to find a recipe but can't really find one. It's something my mom taught me. I did find a picture of something sort of like it and attached it here, although mine is less dry and has more of a creamy sauce on top.
I'll try to think of something else. I'm sure there are things that are more super white boy, hahahaha!
Anyway, I just got home and won't be able to game tonight. Tomorrow I'll definitely try to wrap up the Dragon Ruins. I'm not even halfway through, so that will probably be my entire gaming session tomorrow.
Nice chatting with you as always, my friend!
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Ooh, that looks good. Unfortunately I don't have a working oven. I mean, I do have one installed but it requires so many tanks of gas to use that's it's not even worth it. Maybe I can try something with the mini-oven? *Haha*.
Aiight, so-For the game I'll just wait for the bat signal from you as to where we're going next. I'm doing ok here, so don't worry about me! :)
Casseroles... Ok. I don't think I've ever had a casserole in my life. Sometimes I think we're a lot alike until we start talking about food. I've also only had stuffing once in my life. It tasted like wet bread that was stuffed in the oven with random stuff sprinkled on it. BUT I'll TRY IT!! I have my own sorta idea / or, perception of "white people" food. Basically any food that has no smell and is safe to bring to the office to microwave. Like salads, pasta salads, couscous etc. etc. I know heating up fish in the microwave is a no no, trust me my Mom has had an office job since ever since I was born so I know stories. Also, popcorn is a big-disaster at the office as well right?
Basically, I love stories about working in an office. Because it seems so fun! Like, I remember mentioning liking Dilbert and wanting to be like that when I grow up. Also, if I can pick another T.V. show besides Survivor as my favorite, The Office is definitely up there. I have this fantasy that working in an office is a lot like the lies, betrayals and backstabbings on Survivor, - Hahahahahaha.
Since I've never worked in an office I have a little "office" or work-station here at home for the Farm, where I do all of my busy work, and planning and strategizing lol. I just think it's apart of every civilized society like working and stuff. America, Japan, etc.
So I'm definitely gonna try some of the stuff you mentioned, Boo. I went to the small grocery here and they have tons of Campbell's stuff so I wanted to try like maybe Cream of Chicken with some sorta broccoli thing. And now I know what to use Cream of Mushroom for besides just eating it! Thanks! Since I did work at Chipotle Mexican Grill, I'm gonna try out some of the recipes we had at the restaurant like the Cilantro Lime-Rice, I still remember the recipes and everything. And making salsa is always fun for me. Even if it's just regular fresh salsa.
I'm doing ok here Boo, just take your time! Gimme the signal which dungeon next and I'll be good! :thumbsup:
Note: I'm taking a week off, usually I take a week off towards the end of the month, to just drink and be care-free and have fun. I had a couple beers last night! C: If you notice my replies are late it's probably because I'm knackered!!
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Hey, Boo. I just felt like posting.
I'm having a few beers tonight, I'm taking a moment to do some online-work, I've been playing LUNAR 2 doe I'm in the middle of the Water Ruins. The dungeons in the Epilogue seemed daunting to me at first but each dungeon is like short and sweet to me at least. I just kinda don't really want to be playing anything else right now. 90/2000s JRPGs are so good for me. I also kinda like the thoughts I'm having as I'm playing them I'm just relaxed. Maybe it's because I grew up with them?
So it's nighttime here and it's really the only time where I feel at ease cause the heats zaps me of so much energy during the day. I pretty much wait for the heat to pass before I can do any fun stuff. *Like drinking*. lol
I was kinda thinking our lifes are totally different but we have something in common. lol It's really nice to meet other people who enjoy the same hobbies as you and get to know them online and such. *lol* I'm just sorta doing self-care stuff like playing with a comedone and such. lol Once you get used to the routine it's kinda repetitive and boring, even though it was fun at first. I'm noticing a difference though now that I'm taking much better care of myself. It's kinda hard work though I'm not used to this as a guy. Playing with soaps and lotions and stuff lol
Anyway, just seeing what you were doing and what you were up to? I hope everything's going well for you, of course. It's just me and the dogs here and we're staying up. Yeah, not too much to do here. Even with JRPGs I fear being sedentary so I kinda force myself to turn it off and move around after like 2 hours. lol
Man, I wanted this to be a big philosophical post and it's not turning out that way lmao
Messageboards are really cool though. I love what you guys have going on here. If/When I have time I kinda wanna peruse around and see what you guys talked about instead of just staying in this one thread. Anyway,--.
Hope you're doing ok, Boo I'll try out some of the tips and tricks about the recipes and stuff. I, myself, get really tired of Filipino food and eating rice all the time so it's time to start seeing what else is out there. I don't wanna be old and eating gruel. Take care! C:
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So I'm definitely gonna try some of the stuff you mentioned, Boo. I went to the small grocery here and they have tons of Campbell's stuff so I wanted to try like maybe Cream of Chicken with some sorta broccoli thing. And now I know what to use Cream of Mushroom for besides just eating it! Thanks! Since I did work at Chipotle Mexican Grill, I'm gonna try out some of the recipes we had at the restaurant like the Cilantro Lime-Rice, I still remember the recipes and everything. And making salsa is always fun for me. Even if it's just regular fresh salsa.
See, I think some casseroles are really boring and bland. My wife makes a tuna casserole which is just boiled egg noodles, shredded canned tuna, some cream of mushroom soup, and she adds a little seasoning and stuff. It's so BORING to me but my wife and kids love it. It's one of the only dishes I don't like to eat and will sometimes skip it when she makes it.
Green bean casserole is another personal favorite, although it's better as a side dish than a main course. You take two cans of French's green beans, a can of cream of mushroom soup, and a splash of milk and mix. I then saute some minced onions and mix it in, too. Add some French's fried onions on top and bake.
And that's another cooking time with Boo. :D
I have my own sorta idea / or, perception of "white people" food. Basically any food that has no smell and is safe to bring to the office to microwave. Like salads, pasta salads, couscous etc. etc. I know heating up fish in the microwave is a no no, trust me my Mom has had an office job since ever since I was born so I know stories.
This may or may not be accurate, I dunno. I just know I was raised in a house that didn't do much regarding the microwave. We did a lot of slow cooking in a slow cooker or the oven. Although you are right, pasta salads / potato salads / veggie salads are definitely part of the Americana food staple. I feel like they're less for home-cooked meals and are usually seen more at events where you're feeding a lot of people cheaply -- such as a work or church event. I don't feel like many people do pasta salad just at home, but I could be wrong there.
As for couscous and quinoa and grains like that... Is it just me or are those moreso newer food staples here in the US? I was an adult before I had either. I grew up moreso on stovetop rice dishes (like a yellow saffron rice) or plain brown rice. My mom never used a rice cooker, though; that's something I picked up on my own as I started to eat more more Asian dishes as an adult.
I was kinda thinking our lifes are totally different but we have something in common.
I love this, though. There's a common thread and commonality, but at the end of the day, there's a lot of exploration and open-minded and leaning going on. This is what I feel friendships are all about. It would be so boring if I was only friends with people just like myself.
I'm just sorta doing self-care stuff like playing with a comedone and such. lol Once you get used to the routine it's kinda repetitive and boring, even though it was fun at first. I'm noticing a difference though now that I'm taking much better care of myself. It's kinda hard work though I'm not used to this as a guy. Playing with soaps and lotions and stuff lol
I feel you, man. I could do more. I'm just focused on doing cardio two or three times a week (normally like a 4 or 5 mile run) and trying to hit the gym twice a week. It's hit or miss, to be honest, but a little bit is better than nothing!
I am going to game it up tonight for a little bit. My MIL is coming into town and my son has his big birthday party tomorrow, so I'll have enough time to finish the Dragon Ruins and then I'll probably call it quits.
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See, we do have maids at the house so when they cook it's usually very traditional Filipino food, and very simple: like a piece of fried fish with a side of rice, and cut up tomatoes. And that's it for a filling meal. I think it's nice for the most part but I've grown up w/ stuff like that so I tend to branch out. Now when I cook for myself I usually see it as single, young college guy's food lolol. Pretty much I just see what we have in the stockroom and I make a meal out of it. Like the other day I made tuna pasta salad. Pretty much just saute the can of tuna w/o the juice with onions, cook your pasta and just mix it all together with a little bit of chopped tomatoes on top. (cheese is optional) I just stick it in the fridge and it feeds me for like 2 days.
So as for the game I've been playing it whenever I have free-time which's a lot here lol. I'm about to face the boss in the Water Ruins. I'm kinda just taking my time lollygagging but it's fun for me cause my thoughts are refreshing, relaxed and I'm just having fun. lol I'm keeping in mind that you're on-a-schedule but I kinda wanna just beat the game and moo-ve it along.
Yeah my Mom would buy that stovetop rice stuff but we only would use it as a side dish whenever we had steak, asparagus and blue cheese for dinner. Either that or Uncle Ben's wild rice. My Mom never really uses the microwave either she just makes home-meals, but I use the microwave a lot as a latchkey kid growing up. After school when it's just me in the house and I get hungry either I boil water to make instant noodles or I microwave something from the freezer like a dinner, a pot pie, or finger foods like tostitos, fish sticks or what-have you. The microwave is my friend. I'm not so hoity-toity to think it's not a useful tool in the kitchen.
Now that I own and operate my own farm here, I'm sorta getting into the head of being your own employer. Like now I can kinda understand how my bosses were thinking about when I worked at Chipotle Mexican Grill / & WingStop. I'm sorta trying to wrap my mind around the year-long-employee, - basically now after the fact I know that they hired me just so they can fire me after a year passes. I just wonder why they spent all that time grooming me into possibly working for the company, and why they dolled-up so many conversations with me and promised me so much stuff, - Knowing I was just gonna be let-go / terminated / canned after one year. It just doesn't make sense to me unless company heads are really fake or don't really know how to make proper conversation with people without consulting the Company Handbook on how to Handle Every Situation. Looking back, my bosses, my boss's bosses and HR and all the higher-ups were really awkward conversationalists and really awkward to talk to about day-to-day lifes stuff. T.V., sports, what's going on online. They just have this go-to thing about talking about their family and I was just never really interested in their lifes. Private or what-have-you lol. They would constantly bring it up to I think get me to trust them and make me think they're a 'safe person' to confide in, but I wasn't really buying it. They were also really bad at eye contact like they don't know how to look at a person's face when talking to them. lol Some stuff about life no one can teach you in a handbook / manual, either you know it or you don't. Some people have it, and some people don't.
Anyway. One of the maids is inside cleaning the household so I'm just at my workstation doing a bit of busy work and then I'm gonna go on my daily walk. I'm gonna try to get a bit of yoga and stretching in today too just cause I've been neglecting it I want to work on my flexibility & mobility. I'm always pretty cognizant of my water-intake, luckily. I'm a fish. I keep an Exercise Journal on everything I do physically day-to-day just because I've been on this Weight Loss Journey for 4 years now and I'm just at the point where I really have to grit and bear it. I'm probably average in terms of American standards but I want to keep this up and do more and more and more. Sometimes I watch Survivor to pump me up cause everyone's on that show doing really athletic things. I also watch my diet cause I do a lot of minimalist eating. I love having a lot of items to play with in the house (Atelier) but when it comes to diet, it's definitely minimalist eating for me that suits me. lol
Anyway. Hope you're doing good, Boo!! I do have a lot more questions about Corporate America but I'm having a really good thought process going on this afternoon about just: "Being Your Own Employer" & really getting into the heads of corporate people, and how I feel about hiring and firing employees here at my private farm. Take care, Boos!! C:
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Hey, Boo. I just beat the Water Ruins. I'm thinking about just blazing through the Epilogue as fast as I can because I have so much free-time right now and I just wanna get this game over with. lol
I think the "office-friendly" food thing is definitely true. I had an Asian girl friend once told me she brought pasta to work one time, and it had a very heavy herb-y garlicky rich sauce. And she heated it up in the microwave and she got railed by her co-workers about "stinking up the break room." Those are the kinda moments that make me think awkward things about the office, though.
So I was on my walk. And I was just thinking about some stuff I'll keep it brief. So kinda like I'm still not over how I was treated at my first job in the US. It was weird. Pretty much I'm just thinking about the people and the conversations that went on there. Like if it was a regular day it'd be fine it'd just be me working with all the other young people running the restaurant. But then on days when corporate would come in, people act differently. I just act normal and how I always act cause why treat these people any different? Anyway was just thinking about ranking, hierarchy .. seniority and stuff at the work place. So I kept an open mind and pretended to love the company as much as my heart could and I wouldn't mind moving up from entry-level server to just moving up. I didn't really care about all that. It was more of the slight nuances and stuff like these people seemed super stiffs. They think the only appropriate work conversation ever is family. They seemed obsessed about their own work. And I keep thinking about their weird eye contact like they stared at the whites of my eyes for whatever reason as they interrogated me about myself. Kinda like the types of people who eat saltine crackers with no salt. No spice. Not even black pepper. They were just very old, and dry. Anyway. They seemed to be very "business people" and had socializing w/ people down-to-a-science but I like to think of myself as an expert too cause I watch a lot of Survivor and I just think looking back I'm really glad to have gotten outta there as fast as possible. They had the whole zombied, soulless corporate thing going on. Kinda just like talking to a voice on the phone.
That's the only thing that bothered me about corporate stuff or Corporate America. Don't get me wrong, I actually *LOVE* those types of people on Survivor cause I just find working in an office interesting. But meeting them face-to-face was a whole 'nother thing. I dunno if they were intimidated by me because I was a young, minority male? Maybe they weren't too keen on their video game trivia-knowledge? Maybe they were intimidated by the age-difference? I emulate the show and think of myself as being able to get along with anybody, being a social butterfly, being engaging all the time. Being a go-to man for interesting lines and one-liners. Maybe they weren't used to dealing with minorities is the ONLY thing I could think of what was making them seem awkward to me or out-of-touch?
I was actually very interested in what they had to say though. I love deal-making, I love clutch moments, I love business people, I love giving public speaches, I love being outdoors away from the T.V./computer, I love athletics, I love academics. etc.
So yeah. I was just thinking about why I feel that way when I meet corporate people in America. Are all of you guys that way in person forrealz? It's one thing to be a Big Cat on the computer, but a smallfry in person? I just felt like I could eat that person up if we were on an island competing for $1 dollars.
Sorry for rushing ahead Boo, I just have so much downtime and free-time here that there's not much I can do BUT play LUNAR 2. I kinda just wanna beat the game and do some write-ups about it privately lol. I hope you're still doing well. Keep grinding. Sometimes I wanna talk about like how I'm living my retirement fantasy early. I just feel blessed to be in this situation rather than flippin' burgers back in the US of A. Have a good one, Boo-ster!!! Hope your family's doing alright and your son had a great birthday! Eat a burrito for MEEE!!!! :D
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I'm thinking about just blazing through the Epilogue as fast as I can because I have so much free-time right now and I just wanna get this game over with. lol
Yeah, you're now moving ahead of me a bit. Last night I finished the Dragon Ruins dungeon and beat the Phantom Sentry boss and got the Left Dragon Eye. The boss wasn't too bad, although he nearly wiped out my entire party the first time he pulled everyone in and used his group attack.
I'm still going slow just on account of not being able to game much. I have family visiting town again this weekend, which is eating into any personal weekend time I would normally have (which isn't much, but moreso than during the week).
If you're ready to be done with LUNAR, please feel free to wrap it up. I definitely don't want you waiting on me!
So yeah. I was just thinking about why I feel that way when I meet corporate people in America. Are all of you guys that way in person forrealz? It's one thing to be a Big Cat on the computer, but a smallfry in person? I just felt like I could eat that person up if we were on an island competing for $1 dollars.
I mean, they're all just normal people, too. But often times in corporate America you have to really throw yourself entirely into the business and carry yourself a certain way if you want to move up. It's very soulless, and I do believe after a certain time you'll lose yourself. Obviously this isn't the case for all people, but if you're not careful, you can easily sort of turn into a soulless zombie. I think I've done a good job staying true to myself while climbing the latter, and I think acting naturally and being authentic has actually helped me moreso than it's hindered me. A lot of it is do to how inauthentic many of the interactions feel.
I also feel that corporate culture tends to attract certain types of people. Hard rule follows, people who like structure, people who are very right-brained and process-oriented, stuff like that. You don't see many creatives in corporate culture (unless it's in marketing or something similar).
Just my two cents.
Anyway, it's been a long day and I'm about to crash. I may or may not be on tomorrow, but if not, I'll be on the following day.
Take it easy, homie!
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If you're ready to be done with LUNAR, please feel free to wrap it up.
I think I might just do this. TBH I kinda wanna play some PS4 Pro, and LUNAR 2's the only thing in the way from me doing that. Have you thought about the next game you wanna play, Boo? You had mentioned Final Fantasy XV and I just happen to have it for PS4, as well. :p TBH doe, I kinda love the idea of doing 90s/2000s JRPGs. I'm still up for Chrono Trigger / or even Chrono Cross since this's a Chrono website and it's On Topic. Any old-school, traditional, turn-based, linear JRPG is fine with me. Although it's totally fine with me too if you're too bogged down with work and personal stuff to post in a thread. Just holler at me whenever you have enough free-time again to post / and, chat! :D
I was trying to come up w/ a topic to think about going on my daily walk, but everyone working here at the farm thinks I'm crazy walking around in the ~90 degree heat, so, - I might skip out on it today and just stay indoors!
Hey, I actually was trying to gather some information since you had stated interest in life in the Philippines / and how I'm managing here. So I gathered together some of the monthly bills and:
- we use butane gas tanks to light our stoves here to cook. Each tank is about $16 and we switch it out ~around every month. / I googled and gas is about $56-100+/per month in the US.
- for a month, the phone bill here is about $7-8. / According to Google, the average phone bill in the US is $127/per month.
The lower standard cost of living here is much lower than compared to the US, so I pay a lot less for my monthly expenses here for sure. I just wanted to let my friends know how I'm managing living here and if it really is that inexpensive. I hope that information quenched your curiosity! C: I'll try to get the numbers for electricity, water & internet as well.
I'm at, doing the Dragon's Nest in LUNAR 2. I was playing around with the accessories and crests and Lemina is really interesting to play around with. Her 2 elemental types of magics don't really work against the Harpy enemies and the other elemental magic crests don't work either so I got annoyed, and I equipped her with the Ancient Dagger (her Thieves' Staff is actually useless and you never get anything good from enemies but the basics of items like Herbs and Nuts) to up her speed, and the Archer Crest so she can attack from long-range. I figure it's about time to just grind this game out and it's nothing like pressing X repeatedly and just hitting Fight, Fight, Fight over and over. I really don't want to think about strategy I just wanna get each random battle over with as easy as I can, lol,. :p
Don't you think the bosses in the Epilogue are total pushovers? With Jean's White Dragon Protect and Hiro spamming Triple Sword + Burning Rage, it's only about time until they just keel over. It's almost kinda boring to me, lol.
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Have you thought about the next game you wanna play, Boo? You had mentioned Final Fantasy XV and I just happen to have it for PS4, as well. :p
Yeah, I'm definitely going to play some Final Fantasy XV, and probably Metroid Prime Remastered (which is probably only like 15 hours to beat, give or take). Although I may actually invest some time into Minecraft, too. My kids and I have a Realms account and we haven't played on it much recently, and they've been asking for me to. I'm tempted to log in while they're asleep and build them some secret locations, maybe a scavenger hunt or something. Something I know they'd enjoy, and it would be good to invest some gaming time with them.
You've talked about how much you love the Yakuza games, and I've been craving something that is really deep into Asian culture. Maybe Yakuza 0 to start?
TBH doe, I kinda love the idea of doing 90s/2000s JRPGs. I'm still up for Chrono Trigger / or even Chrono Cross since this's a Chrono website and it's On Topic. Any old-school, traditional, turn-based, linear JRPG is fine with me.
I still intend on taking a little break from group play, but it will be a short break and we'll pick something up together in the summer. I definitely thing a Chrono Trigger playthrough would be fun, and I think I prefer that over Cross simply because I've played Cross more recently a few years back. I may even want to go straight form Chrono Trigger into Chrono Cross. But yeah, something old school would be the most fun for sure.
The lower standard cost of living here is much lower than compared to the US, so I pay a lot less for my monthly expenses here for sure. I just wanted to let my friends know how I'm managing living here and if it really is that inexpensive. I hope that information quenched your curiosity! C: I'll try to get the numbers for electricity, water & internet as well.
I feel like the key for ex-pats like me -- who don't really have much money overall - would be to save a lot of US currency and then make the move. Cost of living would be lower, but I assume the pay is equivalently lower, too. So hypothetically, if I had $100,000 in USD saved up and moved to another country with a lower cost of living, that $100k could go much, much further. Who knows, though, my mother-in-law was saying today that she intends for us to care for them when they get old, as we are likely the only family members that would be responsible enough to do so.
So any moving for us would have to be years down the road, after our parents are gone and our own kids are grown. Alas!
Don't you think the bosses in the Epilogue are total pushovers? With Jean's White Dragon Protect and Hiro spamming Triple Sword + Burning Rage, it's only about time until they just keel over. It's almost kinda boring to me, lol.
Anything after Zophar has been easy! Haha! Some of the dungeons also don't have bosses, but are absolutely slogs to get through. I just keep wishing they'd hurry up and end, and I can't recall which dungeon just has end-game equips and which dungeons are necessary to finish the epilogue.
Speaking of, I did finish the Dragon's Nest. I received the Gale Crest, which is going on Hiro along with the Goddess Crest. I've moved on to Lionhead. I didn't get far before I decided to call it quits.
I'm glad this game lets you save anywhere -- that was such a revolutionary feature (to me, anywhere) when I first played SSSC.
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- Lol, Boo. I have Final Fantasy XV just settin' there and I kinda wanna play it now after I'm done w/ LUNAR 2 since you mentioned it.
- Yakuza 0 was fun. Oh, you'll definitely like it if you want something "Asian." It was my first dive into the series and my friends suggested I try out Yakuza 0 first so you could try it out.
- Is Minecraft any fun? I kinda wanted to get into it. Yeah, sometimes I dream about having a kid of mine own to play video games with. I'm kinda of a little kid myself and I like secret passages and stuff like that. I wanna get them into JRPGs/Survivor.
- Ok!!! I'm holding you to that Chrono Trigger playthrough then! C:
- Yeah, saving up money and moving and just not having a job here is probably ideal. I mean, you can open up a little store and sell stuff in your neighborhood, build an apartment building and collect rent, or just do what I did and start a farm and sell the animals like chickens. People will buy them. Money goes a long way here, man.
- I thought most Americans just stick their elderly parents in a retirement home and leave them there, so I'm surprised you said that! In Asian culture, we take care of our parents until they pass in the home.
Yeah, I think some of the dungeons are actually quite relaxing to walk through just fighting every battle. Re-assures me I don't have ADD or something, lol! I like to take it easy. I finished the Lost Labyrinth last night. I'm planning on just wrapping the game up and wrapping our project up nicely and quickly so I'll try to get through the remaining dungeons tonight. I think I have to do Lionhead, then ofc the Star Dragon Tower and I dunno if there's one more?
I've been thinking about High Philosophy lately, so I'm kinda high in the sky rn like I looked up The Collective Consciousness and was like oh, that's exactly what I'm thinking about. lol
I'll try to get a double-post in later Boo cause I love talking to you and telling you what's up with me. I think you're a really interesting guy too!! :D
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Hey, Boo. So I've saved in the middle of Lionhead which's easily the most annoying dungeon in the Epilogue with its horribly annoying enemies.
Sometimes I think about video game, JRPG "difficulty" vs. just making things annoying for the player. It's fine though cause it's something relaxing to do while I think about things and life, in general. Specifically today I was thinking about my own situation having left the US and moving back to my home country the Philippines. I def feel much more at home and like I belong here for the sheer fact that I was born here. Then I think about my time in the US, my citizenship, and my passport and I go "What makes me [an] American?" Like, I was thinking about what you had mentioned when we first met that everyone, including whites, came from somewhere else even just a few generations ago or back. We all came from a boat from somewhere. I think you're such an interesting friend of mine's since you're so generic, and whiteboy lol. :p I kinda think about let's just say Italians or Irish, are they any more American than me if they were to go to the US now and just happen to be considered white? I don't see a difference in a situation like your family member wants to come to the US and you helping them out?
From the way you described yourself I def see you as like a true blue, red-blooded Southern white American. Just generic. English. I just feel weird thinking about Europeans coming to America now and all of a sudden they're a "white American" just cause they fill in that box. Who's to say your Italian cousin Vinny that just arrived in New York is more American than I am just cause they're white?
Anyway, yeah. These are my ruminations for today. I've just been watching Survivor a lot and ofc there's sooooo many white people on American T.V. I'm just trying to get in their heads. Nice talking to you, buddy, I always love hearing your imput and you setting me straight on things! :D
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Yakuza 0 was fun. Oh, you'll definitely like it if you want something "Asian." It was my first dive into the series and my friends suggested I try out Yakuza 0 first so you could try it out.
I've got a bunch of them through game bundles on my PC. The new Judgment spinoff is also a jRPG, so there's that! I'd like to play the series for sure. I got really into the Yokai Watch series (of all things) simply because it leaned so hard into the Japanese culture side of it. I tend to like games with a strong Asian culture influence.
Is Minecraft any fun? I kinda wanted to get into it.
I think it's an amazing game. The gameplay loop is super rewarding. It's equal parts exploration and resource management. Normally I don't like games that don't have strong stories, but Minecraft is the one exception. The soundtrack and graphics are also really simplistic and sort of old school, but fitting given the motif. I played it first in maybe 2015 with some friends, and we have a server we played on for about a year. It's one of those games I wouldn't really care to play by myself, but playing with people makes it incredibly rewarding.
Yeah, saving up money and moving and just not having a job here is probably ideal. I mean, you can open up a little store and sell stuff in your neighborhood, build an apartment building and collect rent, or just do what I did and start a farm and sell the animals like chickens. People will buy them. Money goes a long way here, man.
There was a school shooting near us today. We're obviously heartbroken, but my wife actually asked me about moving overseas earlier. I had to remind her that every place has its problems, but that not everyone has to work about gun violence and mental health problems quite like the US. It's been a crazy day. It's heavy stuff.
I thought most Americans just stick their elderly parents in a retirement home and leave them there, so I'm surprised you said that! In Asian culture, we take care of our parents until they pass in the home.
Eh, probably more of a stereotype... although it's certainly true to a degree. We obviously don't feel that way. We feel like we should take care of our parents. If they want to be independent, then our job is to set them up to be independent but has us nearby to check on them and care for them. Or, if the situation gets bad enough, have them move in with us. Lord knows they took care of us for our first 20 years, it only seems fair we take care of them in their twilight years.
I finished the Lost Labyrinth last night. I'm planning on just wrapping the game up and wrapping our project up nicely and quickly so I'll try to get through the remaining dungeons tonight. I think I have to do Lionhead, then ofc the Star Dragon Tower and I dunno if there's one more?
We're not far apart, although you'll likely beat me. I think I can wrap up the game within the next week or so. Once we're done I still want to do a final review -- what did we LOVE about the game? What didn't we live? What would we want to see in a new LUNAR game if they ever made one? I think that will then wrap us up! Haha
Sometimes I think about video game, JRPG "difficulty" vs. just making things annoying for the player. It's fine though cause it's something relaxing to do while I think about things and life, in general.
See, I hate unnecessary grinding and game bloat. I have so little time to game and it just makes everything more drawn out.
Like, I was thinking about what you had mentioned when we first met that everyone, including whites, came from somewhere else even just a few generations ago or back. We all came from a boat from somewhere. I think you're such an interesting friend of mine's since you're so generic, and whiteboy lol. :p I kinda think about let's just say Italians or Irish, are they any more American than me if they were to go to the US now and just happen to be considered white? I don't see a difference in a situation like your family member wants to come to the US and you helping them out?
I think I said it before, but you're as American as any other second generation American. We get so overwhelmed by trying to DEFINE things as one thing or another rather than just letting things be as they are. Humans are so vast and unique, and while I agree that it helps to classify a person as A or B or XYZ, we're all very complicated creatures. Being an American isn't about waving an American flag or shooting guns, it's not about being a Democrat of a Republican or just non-political. Being American is simply being part of the community. People move to America, become citizens, and it doesn't matter if you're part of a Russian-American subculture or a Chinese-American subculture, as long as you're investing back into the communities here, that largely makes you American. You did that while you were here, you lived and ate and breathed Americana.
Sure you've since moved, but you did your dues and you earned your piece of the American way. You have a piece of paper - your citizenship - that says you're an American.
Who's to say your Italian cousin Vinny that just arrived in New York is more American than I am just cause they're white?
EXACTLY! As you said, two or three generations back nearly all Americans are immigrants. So fuck those people that try to gatekeep. :D
From the way you described yourself I def see you as like a true blue, red-blooded Southern white American. Just generic. English.
I mean, I am. I wouldn't call myself a red-blooded Southerner, though. I'm from up north and the people down here would call me a Yankee. I'm from Cleveland originally, so I'm from blue-collar rust belt Americana. I don't have a Southern accent and there's a lot I don't like about Southern culture, despite living here. A lot of the culture in the south is about conservative politics, shootin' guns, and claiming to be a devout Christian (which in many cases is just lip service). I am mostly none of those things, haha...
But yeah, generic white boy otherwise.
As for LUNAR 2...
As for me... I've just beat the Lionhead and moved on to the dungeon in the Illusion Forest springs. I remember this being where you get the Ocarina to re-listen to the soundtrack.
After that I think it's on to the Star Dragon Tower. I remember getting one of the dragon eye jewels from a dungeon a while back, but I can't recall if I got the second one. I may have to consult a walkthrough to double check.
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- Yeah. Yakuza is fun but one thing really does bother me and that's: pores. All the Asian dudes have massive pores on their faces, and I'm sitting here thinking "What are they trying to say about Asian guys?" It just kinda bothers me.
- TBH. If I feel like something "Asian" I just power up any old JRPG game. :shrug: Maybe I get a lot more out of it being Asian and noticing all the little things more often than not?
- Ok. I'll def look into Minecraft and ask around about it more. Sometimes I'm up for a little change.
- Yeah, I heard about the shooting in Tennessee. Not taking sides, but you should def listen to a woman's intuition. Plus she's a mom. Sometimes us guys don't notice a threat coming at us until it's right in front of our face. Did I ever tell you that right before I came back home I just got a weird feeling in the air in the US that something bad, and big was gonna happen soon? This was amidst outside forces trying to keep me down, and the rut I was in. A year-and-a-half after living in the Philippines Covid hit, all the multi-gender trans activists stuff, school shootings out the wazoo, and underneath it all in the background is just this aura surrounding mental illness in the United States. It makes me wonder if a lot of ppl have suffered from mental illness in America and it wasn't until smart phones/Tik Tok that they finally had a voice and were more open about it? :shrug: I'm just happy to be out of the US.
- The thing about taking care of your elderly parents seems very Asian to me. Cause we do it just because we know it's the thing to do. We don't even think about it.
- Re: American. Sometimes my mind wanders back to the United States, but then I realize I'm so happy where I am (physically/location} and in my life rn that I just don't care anymore about that stuff. Not my chair, not my problem. I'm just glad all the stuff on the news doesn't follow me to my doorstep everyday and personally affects me anymore. I mean, I feel for you guys but part of the reason I moved was so I don't have to deal with American problems anymore. ((My heart really does go out to you and your family about the school schooting. <3)) I'm glad to be more on the outside looking in. America's such an Entity. That I'll never be able to fully understand. I'm simple, and much more belong on the farm. Sometimes they say ignorance is bliss.
- I thought you were a true-blue Southerner when you had mentioned you were from Tennessee. I thought to myself, most ppl from the South don't know how to use computers... lol.
Ok.--When it comes to the game, I had just finished Lionhead earlier. Fuck that dungeon and the piece it's riding on? It's just the Star Dragon Tower which I'm gonna tackle now when I'm done with this post and I'll be done w/ the game. lol I was thinking of firing up Final Fantasy XV tonight and fuck/muck around in it.
Yeah,-- I'll be down to write a review piece on it with you, my man, for sure lol. TBH, I was thinking to myself Lionhead and it's fucking enemies were so annoying that the gameplay got a downgrade from me cause it got so boring for me in that dungeon that it was so annoying. The story is still an A+ for me since it made me cry this time, but I have to think twice about the score that I'll give the battles/combat/and, gameplay.
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Hey, Boo.
So, I've finally finished LUNAR 2 last night. (Thank God!) It sure felt good to finish a favorite game of mine again, - time-and-time again it still feels good after all this time!! :) Tell me when you finish your playthrough so we can watch the Making Of disc together!!! :)
So, we want to write a sort of Final Review type-of-thing?? I'm down for that. I'll think about what I want to say this afternoon and get a rough draft started in my head. What we liked, and what we didn't like right? And what we want to see in case a LUNAR 3 pops-up??? Okay.
I popped in Final Fantasy XV just because I've been in a huge JRPG mood and you had mentioned it. Maybe we can telepathically communicate this time instead of posting? :p I'm just kidding. But yeah it's been pretty fun so far. Of course, I love the graphics. I'm all for eye candy in any way. Anyway so yeah nothing has been really on my mind so far just games, I hope you're doing good and taking care of yourself and your family etc. Keep up the grind! Keep having fun, yo. :D
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So, I've finally finished LUNAR 2 last night. (Thank God!) It sure felt good to finish a favorite game of mine again, - time-and-time again it still feels good after all this time!!
Congrats, my dude! Sorry it took nearly four months to beat it, considering my pace. But you've done it! How long as it been since you last beat LUNAR 2?
I finished the Lost Labyrinth. Then I kept trying to get into the Water Ruins dungeon and for some reason couldn't find it... so I consulted a walkthrough and realized that I completely forgot to do the wedding events in Nota, so I did that and went through the Water Dungeon. Maybe it was me, but this was one of the easier epilogue dungeons.
Anyway, I've opened the path to the Star Dragon Tower and entered it. Next time I play I plan on beating the game.
One thing that I don't remember is that there's a dragon at the top of the tower? I think Lemina called the Ascent Dragon or something like that. I don't remember, but it makes sense if Hiro flies a dragon to the Blue Star. It's very fitting.
Once I beat it, I plan on sharing some thoughts about the game and things I'd like to see in a hypothetical new LUNAR game. We can also plan the timing so we both the watch the Making Of CD on roughly the same day.
What do you think of Final Fantasy XV so far? I really enjoyed it. It sort of feels like a bro road trip movie (and I guess it really is), haha... The combat is fun and the world is gorgeous. The ONLY complaint I had was the storyline. It wasn't bad, but it was very lore heavy and you could tell that they sort of built the world first and then had to shape the story around the world they literally built in the engine. The storyline changed A LOT behind the scenes, which sort of necessitated all that, and it shows. The story is still good, but it feels held together with duct tape.
Final Fantasy XIII sort of felt that way to me, too, if I'm being honest (I loved FFXIII-2 but never played the third one).
One thing I really like about it is Noctis' character design. I love his design. His original design (when the game was still Final Fantasy Versus XIII) was even cooler, thought!
On the personal front, I'm sort of in a bit of an emotional rut. I think I'm just pooped. We have one guy on the team who has been really shady and isn't doing a good job due to laziness. He had a written warning today and tonight I found that HR wants to let him go (aka fire him with severance). Even though I partially agree - he isn't carrying his weight - I want to believe in people and would like to think this may be a wake-up call to stop being a freeloader. He has an HR manager but reports to me, so it's a decision both of us have to make together, and it just feels bad. My whole day has been shit just stewing on it.
Anyway, my dad is coming to visit tomorrow and is going to stay the night, so I probably won't game any until Friday or Saturday. Once I do it's time to FINISH WHAT WE STARTED. Yeah booooi!
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How long as it been since you last beat LUNAR 2?
I played it two Christmases ago.
What do you think of Final Fantasy XV so far?
I actually quite like it a lot. I like it much better than Final Fantasy XIII, since that was the last FF I played. I like the whole idea/concept of just guys hanging out together. I love Survivor so I like the foraging for ingredients, camping, cooking at the campsite, etc. I rem in FFIIIUS they'd show you using the tent briefly but I always wondered what the chars talked about when they were camping in the field the interpersonal stuff, and social-dynamics and such are much more interesting to me than the main storyline.
I spent all last night just exploring the map in the beginning of the game again foraging for ingredients and stuff and collecting the treasures. I actually am quite the graphics whore so I love eye candy and good graphics. It looks so nice on the 4K T.V. w/ the HDR on. I'll take good looking anything versus substance anyday.
On the personal front, I'm sort of in a bit of an emotional rut. I think I'm just pooped. We have one guy on the team who has been really shady and isn't doing a good job due to laziness. He had a written warning today and tonight I found that HR wants to let him go (aka fire him with severance). Even though I partially agree - he isn't carrying his weight - I want to believe in people and would like to think this may be a wake-up call to stop being a freeloader. He has an HR manager but reports to me, so it's a decision both of us have to make together, and it just feels bad. My whole day has been shit just stewing on it.
I would probably just fire the guy. ("The tribe has spoken.") I know my jobs don't compare to yours' but I was never lazy, and if I had any personal problems I knew better than to take it to work/and have some glum look on my face all day baiting ppl to ask me oh, ...what's wrong? If he can't separate work/personal maybe he has something wrong with him that you can maybe talk to him about... but your job seems very serious, so, and I've only worked minimum-wage so I prob don't know how your type of work affects people. :shrug:
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I actually quite like it a lot. I like it much better than Final Fantasy XIII, since that was the last FF I played. I like the whole idea/concept of just guys hanging out together. I love Survivor so I like the foraging for ingredients, camping, cooking at the campsite, etc. I rem in FFIIIUS they'd show you using the tent briefly but I always wondered what the chars talked about when they were camping in the field the interpersonal stuff, and social-dynamics and such are much more interesting to me than the main storyline.
I don't have much for right now, but I'm glad you're enjoying FFXV. I definitely think it's a huge improvement over FFXIII. The characters are better, the world is better, and I liked the exploration and crafting elements. Both with the recipes and with the simple spell creation aspect (I think they called it Elemancy). The hunts are really fun, too.
Have you had to take down any night-time daemons yet? Fuck the red dragons!
I would probably just fire the guy. ("The tribe has spoken.")
Unfortunately, it's not that simple. I'm not going to dig into it further because of the HR issues and possible litigation, but it's a sticky situation. I'm through my part of it, now, though, so I'll have to see what all the other parties do.
Tonight I plan on finishing LUNAR and will probably start FFXV this weekend. I'm about to take one of the kids to their sports practice, so I'll probably double post later.
See ya homie!
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Howdy-do, neighborin-o.
Have you had to take down any night-time daemons yet?
I tried to take on an Iron Giant but Magitek Soldiers kept showing up and it was like a huge orgy so I just ran from that battle.
Unfortunately, it's not that simple.
I dunno, I think it's pretty hard to get voted off of Survivor. :shrug:
So, yeah. I've been enjoying Final Fantasy XV. One of my favorite aspects to the game is that it's just an all-guys party. I feel like it's catering to me, and it's really hard to find stuff that caters to just me, so I really like that. I feel like I should get what they're all saying to each other and me the audience member listening in... Even with Survivor, I don't think it particularily caters/or I'm not really the target demographic so. It's nice, for a change. I wish I had this when I was 13, and still growing up... but still.
So as for me I've been kinda playing around with social experiments and a line I heard "You can do whatever you want!" so like with T.V. I've been paying more attention to who I look at, where my eyes go to, just thinking about myself more and perhaps being more self-conscious cause I'm a really explosive kinda guy and I don't have many introverted thoughts.
I'm just trying to balance the video game-ing and Survivor and I should be playing video games more... I have so many fun thoughts like my Backloggery, what JRPG to get next, should I stay up the whole night... ?
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I've just been playing a lot of-mostly FF15. It's a pretty easy Final Fantasy to get the hang of. The sidequests and exploration is really fun, I think. I think the voiceover work is nice I just wonder why most of the people have Southern accents maybe that's what they're going for and what Final Fantasy's always been about? I'm on Ch. 3 right now.
Just kinda doing stuff around the farm and going inside to game when I have free time. Yeap!
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I haven't gamed since whenever I last posted here. It's been busy busy! I also definitely won't be playing any tonight... I had family in town again this weekend, and then it's been nothing but outdoor chores: cutting grass, trimming trees, weeding, the whole shebang. Spring is officially here and I'm already ready to do nothing.
Glad you're enjoying FFXV! I don't remember where the storybeats go with the Chapters, but glad you're having a blast. Hopefully it's a good investment of time and energy. :)
Until next time...
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Waiting to watch the Making of disc with you, pal!
And also yeah, just playing FFXV on my end. Put 20 hrs in already.
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Let's plan on watching it early next week. Maybe Monday or Tuesday?
It's Friday morning here and I haven't played any video games in over a week, so I haven't finished LUNAR nor have I started FFXV. I've been really bogged down by work and running non-stop for the kid's sports, and now this weekend we're traveling for Easter. I sure wish I had a Steam Deck about now!!!
To be honest, I'm sort of in a rough place mentally. I'm just exhausted because of all the running I've been doing for work and kids. I don't do well with constant efforts and I regularly need a half day or day to recharge, and I'm just not getting it. It's literally non-stop every day for about three weeks now. I've also had to be in the office everyday for the past week (and again this upcoming week) for some team project deliverables, and it just makes me even more exhausted -- in-office days end up being 14 to 16 hour workdays once you include travel/transit time.
I'm also behind on the few shows I am watching. I haven't watched any new episodes of the Mandalorian or Star Trek Picard in three weeks, so I'm definitely behind on anything that isn't work or family!
So yeah, sorry I'm sort of MIA right now. There's no real interesting life updates here except to say that Tennessee state law is a fucking mess. Not sure if keep up with American politics at all, but I'm continuously embarrassed by the TN state lawmakers. Living in the "deep south" is embarrassing; I love the people here, but southern hospitality is a lie and 90% of the population are hypocrites. Religious zealots, gun-obsessed, homophobic, anti-immigrant, racist, anti-children labor laws, so on and so forth... the mental gymnastics is exhausting.
Anyways, my rant is over. :D
How's Final Fantasy XV? What do you think about the action-RPG combat? Have you started collecting any of the Royal Arm weapons yet?!
If you haven't fought the boss in the Balouve Mines yet (needed for one of the Royal Arms down there), I friggin' hated that boss. I remember fighting him at like level 25 and was actually able to beat him, but it was a lot of kiting and teleporting in to slash him a few times and then jumping up to a different level of the mine to recover. I think it took like 30+ minutes but it's possible. You'll have to revive your squad a lot, haha...
Anyways, I hope you're enjoying Survivor and Final Fantasy XV. Keep me updated about your adventures! Even if I'm not posting as much, I'd like to keep hearing about your thoughts and what you're doing in the game -- it's pumping me up for when I actually have time to pick it up!
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Hey, Boo. I've been waiting for your reply with bated breath.
To be honest, I'm sort of in a rough place mentally. I'm just exhausted because of all the running I've been doing for work and kids. I don't do well with constant efforts and I regularly need a half day or day to recharge, and I'm just not getting it.
I can understand, Boo. Hang in there! I'm exactly the same way. I definitely need time to myself to just shut myself in the house, lock myself in my room and play RPGs, watch Survivor or write in a notebook or something. I'm rooting for you I know you can do it! Just think it has to end sometime and you can get your break. C:
I actually dreaded the "system" when I was in the US. I felt like ever since we were kids we were programmed/locked into being in some form of a 24-hr. daily schedule that just repeats everyday. Wake up, get ready, go to school/work, come home, do family/personal stuff, sleep. Repeat. Weekend. Catch up on sleep or do household chores or groceries. Work week again. It just seemed weird to me, and I kinda felt like if you weren't doing what everyone else was doing you draw suspicion from snoopy elderly neighbors and the police wondering why you're at the mall on a Thursday at 11 am? Anyway. I don't like America's system, so I got out. I definitely have my own schedule here now and I have plenty of time to research RPGs and analyze Survivor to my heart's content. I didn't like the Entity that was America breathing down my neck.
Yeah, I can do the Making of whenever you like. Just give me a holler. C:
I actually really like FFXV rn I've already put 25 hr. into it. I'm doing sidequests, and ignoring the main plot. I'm lv. 37 and I'm just about to go to the Disc of Cauthess with Ardyn. I quite like the graphics, Lunafreya is beautiful. I just pop it on whenever I feel like it during the day. The game was very easy for me to pick up. I'm pretty into RPGs rn like I want to just order a bunch of new games but I decided to save my money and just concentrate on beating FFXV rn. I like just doing the sidequests and stuff for people, like fetch quests, take a picture here for me, or doing the monster hunts. Like I said I love the camping, cooking and fishing. FFXV has the best fishing mechanics for me so far before I had thought Breath of Fire had the easiest. Nothing kills a JRPG more to me than a complicated fishing mini-game. In FFXV it's so easy, and therefore so much fun! :)
So I've kinda realized my schedule is just free and wondered why the heck I was going to bed so early each night so I've been doing 48 hour days lately where I just stay up for 2 days, take a nap if I feel sleepy (or wait for the heat to pass), and just basically do whatever I want. I found I get a lot more stuff done. Plus I ordered some Folgers coffee which's imported so it's been helping out my caffeine game.
I hit a roadblock with my Survivor re-watch I reached a season I don't really like and a winner I don't really like. (Guatemala.) So I've been watching other reality T.V. like I have to catch up on Big Brother and rn I'm doing America's Next Top Model cause I love watching girls. There's a live Survivor season airing rn so I don't know what I'm doing re-watching older seasons when I should be more focused on that? Reality T.V. was such a big part of my childhood and it's fun re-living that. :)
Awe. I love that you said you like my lifes updates! I'll try to keep you posted then. I'll probably double post but I'm gonna try not to triple post so I'll make the next one a good one!! :D
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Ah! Hey, Boo. Here's a lifes update.
So basically just sticking to Final Fantasy XV for right now. I just got the car back from the Empire's base which's a good thing cause I was freaking out how I was gonna do sidequests without it. Anyway, I got it back. It looks like the story's gonna go to another country/continent or another part of the map so I'm thinking of staying put and try to do all the sidequests on the first map first before continuing on. I wanna be so overpowered that I just breeze through the main story points. And plus doing the side stuff is so much fun. While I'm playing I just think about what JRPG to get next: I was thinking about the .Hack game cause I played the first one on PS2 and it was kinda fun and I was of course also thinking about Dragon Quest XI cause I want another epic JRPG adventure. Kinda thinking about MGS: Phantom Pain cause the sneaking mission I just did reminded me of it.
So I actually left the castle today. I went to this place near the hospital on the highway called Mody's Pizza. I've been looking for pizza here that's comprable to our's in America but I don't think I'm gonna find that unless I go to Manila or another big city and to the mall at like a Domino's or something. Anyway this pizza is like a frozen pizza from the frozen freezer section aisle at the grocery like at best if even that. I used to go to this other place called Shakey's but they closed so this one just opened. I made friends with the woman that works there. I might hit it up again if I want a carbo-load.
As for reality T.V. I'm still doing Survivor cause I'm just a freak like that and I started this new series called The Traitors on Netflix. It's only available on Netflix US and I don't have a VPN but you know me I know all the sites that have every reality show series available for streaming for free so. Why not. The show's pretty good you should check it out if you're into Scottish/European castles in the countryside and such. It's a competition-based show so there's mindfuckery and sabotage and such. :thumbsup:
I'm so awake right now I might stay up all night. Neighbors are playing with poppers outside so the dogs are sleeping inside right now but I'm about to kick them out. I need them outside at like 1-4am. Anyway so that's all pretty much me.
Hope you're doing good. I got worried at your last message but I know you can handle it. I'm probably just gonna do some late-night exercises like sit ups on my bed, and some push ups I already did my daily walk. If I stay up I plan on walking again at 6am before the sun comes up and it starts getting hot. Take care! Boo, you're the best!! :D
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Welp, just got back from a short trip this weekend to visit my parents. They live about 3.5 hours away, but of course there was major traffic both directions due to the holiday. It was a super quick trip, but we had fun.
On Friday night I went to see Bruce Campbell (a b-movie actor) do a Q&A and trivia show, and then we watched one of his movies. It was a blast. We watched Evil Dead 2 IN A FRIGGIN' CAVE. Like, they set up a huge projector and some chairs in a dark cavern and we just got to watch one of the best horror (with a little bit of dark comedy) movies of all time. It was awesome. I didn't get home until 3:00am and then had to wake up at 7:00am to make the trip to see my parents. Suffice to say, I'm pooped.
This week is going to be another busy one. I have to drive into the office all five days this week, which means I'll be awake at 5:00am and then at work by 7:00am, and I'll get off at maybe 4:00pm at the earliest, plus an hour+ drive home. It's going to be a LOOOOONG week. I have sports and school events almost every day this week, so there will little to no gaming time, but...
...I'm thinking about sort of watching the Making of LUNAR 2 DVD on my way to work. A lot of the time I listen to podcasts or listen to YouTube videos, seeing that it's an hour or more drive each direction. That way I can do that. I've already checked and the video is uploaded on youtube, so I can take it that way.
So tomorrow morning (my time) -- I'm watching the Make of LUNAR 2 documentary! :D
I still haven't finished the show, though.
So basically just sticking to Final Fantasy XV for right now. I just got the car back from the Empire's base which's a good thing cause I was freaking out how I was gonna do sidequests without it. Anyway, I got it back. It looks like the story's gonna go to another country/continent or another part of the map so I'm thinking of staying put and try to do all the sidequests on the first map first before continuing on.
Pretty sure that's where I left off when I quit playing! I did what you're doing and focused on getting all the side quests knocked out, and at that point I was able to get most of the Royal Arms. Hearing you talk about it is getting me excited for when I'm able to start playing it.
Who's your favorite character? I really like Noctis, although I thought Aranea had an awesome design. I think you've already met her (maybe at that base when you retrieve the Regalia?).
I like just doing the sidequests and stuff for people, like fetch quests, take a picture here for me, or doing the monster hunts. Like I said I love the camping, cooking and fishing. FFXV has the best fishing mechanics for me so far before I had thought Breath of Fire had the easiest. Nothing kills a JRPG more to me than a complicated fishing mini-game. In FFXV it's so easy, and therefore so much fun!
Dude, the budget that went into the cooking must've been insane. The modellers did such an amazing job on all the food -- some of it looks AMAZING and makes me really hungry. I love learning new recipes as I eat at new diners and find new ingredients in the wild.
The fishing is also great, like you said. I skipped over the fishing for a long while and never tried it, but once I did I was hooked. Like you said, it's pretty simple and reminds me of the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time fishing minigame on the Nintendo 64.
Make sure you go back to the entrance of Insomnia city and there's a hidden fishing hole (and a hidden sewers entrance nearby). If I remember correctly, there's a rare fish that you can only find there.
I went to this place near the hospital on the highway called Mody's Pizza. I've been looking for pizza here that's comprable to our's in America but I don't think I'm gonna find that unless I go to Manila or another big city and to the mall at like a Domino's or something. Anyway this pizza is like a frozen pizza from the frozen freezer section aisle at the grocery like at best if even that. I used to go to this other place called Shakey's but they closed so this one just opened. I made friends with the woman that works there. I might hit it up again if I want a carbo-load.
I imagine that's tough trying to find good American-style food, especially pizza. I know when I traveled in Japan it was tough to find decent pizza. When I was in the UK the pizza was better and was closer to US pizza, but even then something was off and wasn't quite right.
If nothing else, though, I always like having "my place" where I know the staff (at least casually) and it feels comforting, even if the food is subpar and only so-so. We have a place like that here in our small little town.
As for reality T.V. I'm still doing Survivor cause I'm just a freak like that and I started this new series called The Traitors on Netflix.
I hadn't heard of The Traitor but just watched the trailer, and it looks good! I have a thousand shows I'm juggling, none of which have been watched in over a week, haha... I'm telling you man, I need a break. If I can just get through this week I can get back to a still-busy but more manageable schedule.
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We watched Evil Dead 2 IN A FRIGGIN' CAVE.
Sounds cool. Makes me wanna play Resident Evil. I'm into all sorts of things and find a genuine interest in them. @_x I remember one time I was staying up late on a weekend and this program popped on called Saturday Night Frightfest and they would show like a really bad horror movie and the people would commentate on it. I got into it, though.
Alright, --I'll watch the Making of LUNAR 2 tomorrow then. :)
I've been doing all the sidequests and I have only 4-5 of the Royal Arms.
Who's your favorite character?
Noctis is like, my 2nd-favorite character only to Prompto. Noctis's design is I can't tell if he's supposed to be half-Asian or whatever and they make him seem kinda emo. But he's ok. I like Prompto cause he's supposed to be the goofy one and he's constantly talking, and I like his look like blond hair and fair skin he looks icy cool. Then, probably Ignis cause he's the nerdy cooking all the meals. And Gladio.
I hadn't met Aranea yet. I quite like Cindy and Lunafreya.
I did what you suggested and went to that fishing hole and milled around for a little bit but only caught a few common fish. Thanks!
Yeah, I really like JRPGs that incorporate food because they try to make the games seem so involved it only makes sense? I like a bunch of JRPGs that have food in them even if it's only an item or two: Breath of Fire, Star Ocean: the Second Story has an Iron Chef-like cooking competition mini-game, Azure Dreams has a restaurant, Suikoden II also has a competition mini-game, Earthbound has the condiments/sauces. Up to now I've found Final Fantasy a little dry without food. This installation has caught my eye though. As I play games I take note in my RPG Cookbook of various dishes I can re-create in real life -- I'm alone and food is important to survival so I take what I can from these games and see what kind of foods that's easy to make at home for me as a single guy on his own. I really do try to learn from JRPGs and not just interact with them! C:
Hang in there, Boo! Keep holdin' on!! :D
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I watched the Making of LUNAR 2 documentary today, and I listened to all the outtakes as well. I wish I could remember all my thoughts I had this morning, but here's what comes to mind...
- It was funny hearing the Japanese developers talk about their experience. I'd be interested in hearing what their original draft of LUNAR 2 looked like -- they mention that it had all the heroes of SSSC traveling and fighting along a new generation of heroes. Now that I know that that story exists, I want to play it!
- I like how even though team members had specialties (ie scenario writing, development, etc), everyone got to contribute to the overall story.
- I'm surprised by the voice actor for Ghaleon. He actually sounds the same, just not as theatrical in every day conversation!
- The voice actress for Ruby and Jean was hilarious. She sounds like a really fun person, and after seeing and hearing all of the behind the scenes, I wish she had more.
- I never loved the VA for Hiro, as I thought he was sort of a bad actor (so was Lucia). But seeing and hearing him here -- he has more acting ability than I think the game showcases. I'd be curious to see what else he's done, if anything. It's also cool that he's friends with the VA for Alex Noa, and that that's how he got the role!
- I never loved the VA for Lucia, either, but the VA seems just so sweet and innocent. Nice lady.
- I don't remember if it was Lucia or Jean's VA, but her talking about her family and farting was hilarious.
- One thing they briefly mentioned was how the series is very much inspired by northern Europe. I love the character designs in this game, and this just makes me love it more.
- I wish they had included the VA for Nall, but alas!
There's probably more that I'm forgetting, but that's what I have for now.
I have a really long day tomorrow, as after work I have a dinner with a vendor where they're going to wine and dine myself and several other leaders. I probably won't get home until late, so I'm going to try and conquer the final dungeon of LUNAR 2 tonight. I probably won't be able to finish it, but maybe I can at least get further up the tower. I still haven't finished the game and I'm ready!
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Ok, I just watched it. I've watched this so many times!
Um. Overall I thought it was pretty interesting. Usually whenever I watch it I skip the Japanese part and go straight to the US for a laugh!
I thought everything about it was interesting. I thought it was interesting how so many people are involved in just one game on the Japanese part. And there's a bunch of people cramped in one room with a bunch of computers and T.V.s stacked on top of one another. I also really liked how everything was hand-drawn and they just use the computer to add little details and stuff.
I always get a kick out of Noriyuki Iwadare cause they make him seem like this super eccentric, loner, mad scientist type of artist playing piano is a small room-type. I like how he explained he "added ethnicity to the music." I guess most music is just none? He touched upon Indian and Northern European (I have no idea what that is?). I always did think LUNAR had some ethnic vibes, kinda like The Legend of Zelda or something.
I thought how it was interesting how they explained that the Japanese add voices after it's drawn/US draws in accordance to the dialogue. And when they bring the game to the US they have to add the voices in Japanese-style in accordance to the drawing and the mouths moving. Interesting!
Um. I get a kick out of all the voice actors too. I think Jenny Stigile is everyone's favorite as she sings all the opening songs and has been working with Working Designs on so many games for so long. I was playing Albert Odyssey for Sega Saturn and she did voice work on that game too and I was surprised she's like still there! They make jokes in-game about her too like in Arc the Lad: "I much prefer when Jenny sings!"
I think my favorite voice actor is Kathy Ostrander cause she was like embarrassed about saying her own last name or whatever. Ostrander? lmao.
Chad Letts the voice for Hiro is really cool too. I've always liked him as Tempest in SSSC. I think he was the major change though cause I'm pretty sure the voice actor for Hiro in the Sega CD version is a different guy.
I always got a kick out of seeing all the testers in the Working Designs office. LOL!!!!! And seeing like the handful of staff members. I remember being in California and talking to Kelly Knight as a kid when I was making a phone-order for something. XD
I think that's pretty much it. I remember when I was taking college classes I would get home after getting some In-n-Out Burger, pop in the Making of disc and watch it while I ate cause I needed a breather and it was nice to remember not to be so serious and stressed out!
Yeah, cool extra they provided with the game, for sure! LUNAR 2: EBC has nice packaging and it's a really nice item to have in my collection. They never did that for games before and it was really nice.
I'm so happy to finally be done with the game!
EDIT: As for FFXV, I was gonna say the magitek troopers dropping down while you're already in the middle of a battle is really annoying, especially since I noticed it happens frequently. Also I noticed the bushes and shrubbery get in the way of the camera and there's already so much going on I have to keep attacking instead of going to move the camera. Just some minor gripes doe!
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Hey, Boo another update on what I'm doing.
So I've kinda been doing my "48 hour day" thing. Pretty much I find sleeping so boring... and I don't really get tired at night anymore that much... I was kinda thinking maybe I'm not producing melatonin to feel sleepy when it's nighttime? I've always stayed up really late at night since high school/I'm most definitely a night owl and I've kinda been a just more extreme about it now as an adult since I don't have supervision. So I actually haven't even gone to sleep yet since yesterday! I'm not tired right now at all.
I've been getting more and more into FFXV. I met Aranea I thought she was just ok kinda a brief encounter. I took Iris to Malmalam Thicket and got a Royal Arm. I've gotten two more so far aside from the storyline ones one at Malmalam and the Rock of Ravatogh. I have to go find mythril for the boat.
Nothing really exciting I'm up to just a lot of gaming. I was just thinking I don't really like lying down in a bed for more than 5 hours cause it really hurts. I've been feeling being 36 more and more these days. A lot of people here have been calling me out that I do tend to sleep a lot. I got to thinking, Why am I sleeping and lying down thinking so much when deep down inside I know I don't like to? So I've been doing the coffee thing more and more, I get almost twice more exercise in a "day" now and I have plenty more time to game and do whatever I want.
I was joking to myself maybe I'm too big and strong to fit in a day's work into a small 24-hr. window and my mind needs TWO days? Or there could just be something wrong with me. LOL Don't worry I plan on sleeping for realz tonight, though.
Been thinking about JRPGs I wanna tackle:
Dragon Quest 11 -- It was suggested I just get the definitive edition S
Final Fantasy VII Remake -- I've been in a HUGE Final Fantasy mood and want to try this out
Final Fantasy PixelRemaster -- it comes out April 19th and I kinda wanna re-visit the older games and see what players experienced way back when
I have a huge thing for farmsim games now since I have the farm so I was wondering if you knew of any good ones?
--the Harvest Moon games?
--Rune Factory series?
--Atelier?
--Stardew Valley?
Have a good day, Boo! :D
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Welp, I'm officially back in action! I survived a streak of 3 weeks of in-office work days on top of normal parent/school/sport responsibilities. I still won't be checking in daily, but it won't be nearly as rare as it has been the past few weeks.
I have yet to beat LUNAR 2 and actually haven't played video games in weeks. In fact, I've also given up mobile gaming on my cell phone entirely. I quit playing Final Fantasy Brave Exvius: War of the Visions and Another Eden. I've been a day-one player for FFBE:WotV and have logged in daily, and I've probably spent over a grand of real money to buy stupid in-game currency over the past three years. I'm probably not a whale, but I've been a player that has acquired almost all the units, maxed them, and played daily to get literally every single armor and weapon maxed out.
I won't go into detail unless there's interest, but I quit playing because the parent company (GUMI) is just balls-to-the-wall insanity recently with limited releases, and you can't stay in the game anymore without spending real world money. Once it becomes forced on you and is no longer an option, I'm out. See ya! I just don't have enough time in my life anymore for much gaming, and this is one less thing to complicate my life and add to my stress.
Too bad, because the storyline has been EXCELLENT the past year or so.
Now, on to you adventures with FFXV:
As for FFXV, I was gonna say the magitek troopers dropping down while you're already in the middle of a battle is really annoying, especially since I noticed it happens frequently.
YES. This was such a pain for me, too. Especially when you're fighting Giants at nighttime. This was a major complaint for me, too.
Where are you at, now? How are you enjoying it?
You mentioned before how beautiful Lunafreya is. I've heard a lot of people say that, actually. I think she's pretty, but what I really appreciate about her design is that she's every day pretty -- like the type of person you'd see around town. Not the over-the-top beautiful of, say, Tifa and Aerith from FF7R.
Been thinking about JRPGs I wanna tackle:
...
Final Fantasy VII Remake -- I've been in a HUGE Final Fantasy mood and want to try this out
Speaking of FF7R -- I platinum'd the game last year and loved every minute of it. If you liked the original FF7, I think you'll like this one. It is definitely a remake but adds some new content that really leaves your head scratching (especially in the last few chapters).
The graphics are stellar, and the gameplay is boss. I have some complaints with the pacing and chapter-system, but overall, it's an 8.5/10 for me.
Also... I'm not one to get into nonfiction babes, but the women of FF7R will have you falling in love. Every single one of them. It's impossible to choose between Tifa, Aerith, and Jessie.
I have a huge thing for farmsim games now since I have the farm so I was wondering if you knew of any good ones?
--the Harvest Moon games?
--Rune Factory series?
--Atelier?
--Stardew Valley?
I haven't played any of them. The only farming sim I ever played was a game called the Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles back in 2017 or 2018. I've always thought I'd love a farming sim, but never really pulled the trigger.
The Atelier series, in particular, stands out to me as a low-stakes game that I'd probably dig, but there are so many of them I don't know where to begin. That and they never seem to go on sale.
One last thing... I'm finally going to beat LUNAR 2 tonight! I get to work from home tomorrow so I don't have to wake up nearly as early, and I'm committed to wrapping this game up. I still want to share some thoughts around what I'd like the sequel to be, which I'll share later. I typed up some stuff back in Feb and March, so it will be here eventually.
Anyway, glad you're doing well, my friend. Hang in there and keep me updated about life's journeys!
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Yeah, I'm not really into mobile gaming. I played Angry Birds for a little bit. I figure I try to focus on console just cause it's always worked for me. I need the T.V., my room and my chair.
Where are you at, now? How are you enjoying it?
I was busy trying to do as many sidequests as I can in Ch. 8 but there're alotta them. I looked up that you can't really go back to the open world once you set sail for Altissia going into Ch. 9, but there's a dog that lets you go back and visit? :shrug: I set sail anyway cause I figure I'll try to beat the game instead of lolly-gagging.
I don't really fawn over much video game girls but I guess I like Lunafreya cause she's a blonde and the way they made her face looks just normal she can look a little weird but I think that's just normal. Yeah, I've seen some clips of FF7R and it looks great. I usually like most FF girls but I thought FF7 was always missing a good blonde. Unless they count Cloud in a dress? :x
The Atelier series, in particular, stands out to me as a low-stakes game that I'd probably dig, but there are so many of them I don't know where to begin.
Before I got a PS4 Pro, I was playing a few last-minute JRPGs for the PS3 and Atelier was like caught my eye last-second lol, I enjoyed it a lot. I started with Atelier Rorona and just went in order by release date. I'm looking at the PS4 Atelier games and apparently Atelier Sophie/Atelier Sophie 2 is a good place to start. I'm thinking about picking up that game rn.
I'm pretty into PS4 JRPG gameplaying right now and I have a few titles I'm looking at to possibly get:
-ever heard of Undertale? It's kinda like Earthbound but even weirder
-FFVIIR I kinda wanna play this
-DQ11S this looks good
-Atelier Sophie 2 I just wanna cont my Atelier journey onto the PS4
I'm just kinda home alone. My dogs keep me company when I'm in the room doing exercises/yoga and stuff. I've been writing in a notebook a lot just my inane thoughts. I'm still doing my "staying awake" thing I kinda just take a nap whenever I feel I need to. I hate having a schedule or 24-hr. routine. It seems so systematic. I kinda just do a lot of stuff at night when it's actually cool and I don't feel zapped by the heat and I kinda stay inside when the sun's out during the day and just go out when I have to supervise and talk to the workers. I love that my dogs keep me company all the time. I notice they're starting to be more affectionate towards me especially the other one boy dog. He stays outside and guards the place while the girl stays in my room in case something happens and her barking will wake me up.
I'm trying to teach one of the maids the kinds of foods I like so she can start to make it herself. I'm focused on trying to make a good chicken tikka masala I got all the spices and garam masala and everything!
That's pretty much all I'm up to today just video gaming and everyday life to break up the monotony! lol
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Hey, Boo. So I beat FFXV. I'm surprised I beat it so quick in what seems like a week or a few days. :shrug: Overall I liked it though I liked the cinematics and I felt like I just enjoyed it towards the end. I'm just fucking around wid it now while I wait for DQ11 to be delivered I'm gonna play it with a friend of mine on Discord. Apparently the S - Definitive Version has dumbed down graphics for its release for the Switch and it's there also for the PS4 version, so I opted to get the Standard Version. :shrug: I kinda wanna window shop around online for another new game though that I can just play on the downlow...
As for me, life's going ok. I made tikka masala the other day, I have some leftovers I'm about to heat up and eat, it turned out pretty good and it was so easy to make once you do it for the first time. It's turning out to be one of my favorite dishes to eat... The recipe calls for chicken but I just made it with potatoes. For the next batch tomorrow, I'm gonna add green peas and cubes of cheese, as well... I gave some of the farm workers some and they said my recipe was delicious. :)
Rn, I'm catching up to the new season of Survivor I have to watch the newest ep tonight, just shopping around for games and just random IRL stuff...
Hope you're doing good, hoss! :D
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Welp, I finally finished LUNAR 2 on Sunday! Or was it Monday? Either way, I finished it!
I really do love this series, and I wish that it was picked back up. My only fear is that they would change up the gameplay too much, which I dunno, I find the current system charming. Dragon Song was far too different and lost a lot of what made the previous LUNAR games so good.
I originally meant to just write out a few plots / story beats / combat elements that I'd like to see, but it quickly evolved into a full-fledged fanfic plot. I'm sorry, and you don't have to read it, haha...
So here's my thought on a potential sequel story...
First, some background: SILVER STAR HARMONY's prologue explored what it called the HERESY WAR, which was the adventure of Dragonmaster Dyne, Ghaleon, Mel de Alkirk, and Lemia Ausa. This new scenario showed their final battle against the FIVE PRINCES OF THE BLACK STAR, eldritch horrors that were allied with the villain EIPHEL to steal the powers of Althena. As we know, this adventure ended with Goddess Althena becoming human and leaving the world without a proper deity.
The story picks up 300 years after Silver Star and 700 years before Eternal Blue...
It follows a blue-haired warrior, GALE, who is serving in a backwater outpost on the edge of the FRONTIER. His best friend is the prince of the now-nation of Pao, PRINCE ERRANT GRAY, a trouble-maker that often gets the two into trouble -- which is soon revealed to be why the two are being punished and force to serve in this backwater location. Errant is a capable swordsman and more skilled than Gale, but he is arrogant, selfish, and while not evil, he isn't a very good friend.
Rumors have been circulating that mysterious masked figures, called SCIONS, have been visiting various kingdoms promising wealth and magical artifacts in exchange for political cooperation. One of these figures, the SCION OF EHTRIC, has come to the Pao nation and is meeting with KING ZEPHYR GRAY.
Through a series of events, Gale and Errant end up back in Pao's capital and Errant steals a magical relic from the Scion. He force Gale to try it on, and it's revealed to be a magical ring that binds itself to Gale's hand. The ring allows Gale to summon a magical black blade at will and grants him new sword art skills that make him a powerful swordsman - even better than Prince Errant himself. However, King Zypher, tired of their antics, sends them out of the kingdom and to the magical city of VANE to find an enchantment to remove the ring.
After leaving the nation of Pao, the two pass through the FOREST OF ILLUSION and get separated by moving trees of the forest, and Gale finds an abandoned laboratory. Deep within it he finds a beautiful, sleeping woman with jet-black hair, who has been frozen in stasis for centuries. Gale awakes her to learn her name is AMARIS, but she has amnesia and remembers nothing about herself. She also hears a mysterious hears a song that is calling out to her. Gale convinces her to accompany him to Vane, and upon leaving the forest they find Prince Errant, who rejoins the party. He expresses jealousy that Gale has both acquired a powerful magic relic and a beautiful woman.
The trio is accosted by the Scion of Ehtric, who demands both the magical ring and Amaris. He expresses that "the ring was meant for someone else, King Zypher." Since the ring cannot be removed due to the enchantment, the Scion attacks them to take off Gale's hand instead. Despite the party's best efforts, their power isn't enough to defeat the Scion, and they are defeated...
...before the Scion can strike Gale down, however, the trio is rescued by a mysterious, WHITE-HAIRED WARRIOR. He defeats the Scion (who escapes) and warns that both Gale and Amaris are in grave danger. He is annoyed that Gale woke Amaris up, and has been trying to protect her "for ages" so she could awaken her latent powers. He expresses that Amaris' powers will one day be needed to stop the Scions, who are actually evil, corrupted men serving the Five Princes of the Black Star. Last, this mysterious warrior encourages Gale to get to Vane quickly -- he worries that the the powers of his magical ring come with a terrible cost. This white-haired warrior (who is later revealed to be Nall) then runs off on his own mission.
The group makes a pitstop in ILUK, where they meet a beautiful inventor named FORSS ALBRIGHT. Forss joins the party and uses her inventions to essentially create magic-like effects. Despite not having any actual magic ability, she is the spellcaster in this journey. Forss builds them a hot air balloon to hasten their journey to Vane, but the journey is short-lived and they end up crashing in the MERYOD SWAMP.
After reaching the sinking village of MERYOD, the group meets another party member, FALION AUSA, one of the two premiers of the MAGIC GUILD of Vane. He explains that his father, the leader of the Magic Guild, recently died and made his two young sons their new leaders. Falion has very limited magical ability and has no interest leading the Guild, so he ran away from home. Despite these events, he agrees to help the party travel to Vane.
The party has several other adventures while traveling to reach the Magic Guild of Vane. Now a complete party, we have Gale, our sword-wielding hero; Amaris a mixture of healing and attack spells; Prince Errant a physical attacker with both ranged and non-ranged attacks; Forss, the technology-wielding "battlemage"; and Falion, a physical attacker with a few power-up spells.
They eventually reach Vane, where they meet Falion's twin brother, LUMOS AUSA. Lumos was worried about Falion and begs him to come home, as they are stronger together, but Falion refuses. Regardless of events here, the Magic Guild's council are able to study Gale's magic ring and reveal that the ring is made ancient magic from the Dark Star and the ring cannot be removed without the powers of the four dragons... which we learn have been missing from the world since the events of Silver Star.
Thus, the heroes are forced to try and locate the four dragons. The party first travels to try to find the White Dragon. On their travels, the party continues encountering the evil Scions, who are revealed to be gifting similar powerful relics (with dark secrets) to the leaders of Meribia and other countries. The goal is that the artifacts gifted to the leaders will eventually corrupt them and turn them evil, and no nation on LUNAR will have leadership that can help rise to stop the Five Princes of the Dark Star when they enact their evil plot. While on these adventures, the Scions try to recruit Prince Errant, who has slowly been harboring a growing jealousy over Gale. In Meribia, they eventually succeed, and Errant turns into a villain and leaves the party.
Upon finally crossing the ocean and reaching the White Dragon Cave, they find no sign of a dragon and decide to find either the blue or red dragon. It's a small branching storyline with only slightly different events, but regardless, their efforts are ultimately in vain, and they fail to find the other dragon.
Feeling confused and frustrated at the disappearance of the four dragons, however, they end encountering the white-haired warrior again, who reveals himself to be the white dragon, NALL. Nall explains that after the events of Silver Star, the dragons lost their powers and were forced permanently into their human body forms. Thus, the Nall of this game is currently just a normal human without any of his transformation abilities or magical spells. He joins the party (replacing Prince Errant) and explains that if they can find the four dragons and take them to the fifth STAR DRAGON, they may be able to harness the powers of the Blue Star (where Althena's lingering magic is slowly healing the planet so that humans may one day return) and revive the powers of the four dragon's.
The party ends up tracking down the blue dragon, CYAN, who is happily living life as a human in Meribia. They then manage to locate the red dragon, AMELIA, who is also living as a human (and is guarding a red dragon egg - hinted at being baby Ruby). Amelia explains more about the nature of the dragons and their offspring. She also explains that the black dragon, RUBEUS, died at the Grindery during the events of Silver Star. No black dragon has been seen since, although per the nature of dragons, a replacement dragon would have been magically created before Rubeus had died.
Nall and Amelia then reveal that the shadow dragon has been with them all along: the black dragon is actually Amaris, who was hatched/born before the events of Silver Star and was being studied (in her human form) by the evil scientist, Taben. However, Taben was defeated and his hidden laboratory was lost in time, Amaris with it. This explains the song she has been hearing since awakening - it is Luna's song from Silver Star, and it is the magical song of Goddess Althena guiding her to embracing her dragonic heritage as the black dragon.
Having found all four dragons, the group locates and then climbs the Star Dragon Tower, where the Star Dragon challenges their dedication. Upon defeating him, he explains that he can create a bridge to the ruins of the Blue Star, where they may be able to find the lingering magic of Althena they need to revive the powers of the four dragons.
Just before they use the powers of the Star Dragon to travel to the Blue Star, the evil infection of Gale's magic ring is revealed to have almost entirely consumed Gale's soul - they're almost out of time!
They nevertheless travel to the Blue Star and explore the ancient ruins of a city that is very, very similar to modern-day Earth (it may even be Earth, who knows). There they are confronted by Prince Errant, now evil and imbued with dark powers from the Five Princes of the Dark Star. They manage to defeat him, however; the Five Princes then take back their power back from Prince Errant and belittle him, calling him weak and feeding his insecurities and his rivalry to Gale.
The party finds a crystal garden created by Goddess Althena when she left the Blue Star, where her lingering magic is slowly healing the Blue Star so that humans can one day return. They pick a crystal flower that contains her power and return to Lunar via the Star Dragon's power. Prince Errant begrudgingly goes with them.
Back in the Star Dragon Tower, Gale and Amaris attempt to use the magic of Althena to revive the four dragons, but find that the magic still isn't powerful enough to break the seal, only weaken it. The seal is weakened just enough so that Nall gains a few new battle abilities. Regardless, the four dragon's powers are being blocked by the Five Princes of the Dark Star, and thus the Princes must be defeated entirely - without the powers of the four dragons.
Before they can make their next move, however, Gale finally succumbs to the evil ring and collapses, before awakening as an evil Scion, now-imbued with powers gifted to him from the Five Princes of the Dark Star. The party fights him and tries to talk him out of it, and it is only with the combined efforts of Amaris and his friends that they are able to give him the strength to overcome the evil curse. Through the power of friendship and love, Gale is able to overcomes the darkness, focus, and...
...he chops off his own arm, severing the infected arm that wears the ring. This sacrifice causes the evil ring to lose it's power entirely. Prince Errant, still consumed by his own insecurities and wanting to regain the favor of the Dark Princes, betrays the party yet again and kidnaps Amaris and takes her to the Five Princes.
A short time passes, and Gale is despondent, thinking that he is weak and useless, and that he has failed Amaris. He has also lost his battle prowess and sword with the loss of the magic ring. However, his friends come to him and reveal that they have built him a new, mechanical replacement arm. This emboldens him, and despite his lack of ability, he resolves to save Amaris and save the world. Proud of his resolve, the Star Dragon then gives him a dragon relic of his own: the Ring of the Star Dragon. Gale equips it and essentially regains the powers he had from the evil relic, but this time his black sword is comprised of goodness and holy light.
The party stages a final assault against the Five Princes of the Dark Star, who are revealed to be trying to revive their king, the evil deity ZOPHAR. The party defeats the Five Princes, and Prince Errant is betrayed by the Five Princes and forced to become the living host to the soul of Zophar, allowing him an avatar to re-enter the world.
The heroes battle the Five Princes, defeat them, and then battles the Zophar-possed-Errant. As Zophar returns to his slumber, Errant dies (no redemption for him). Gale uses his Ring of the Star Dragon to deliver the final blow and re-seal Zophar away, rendering the relic useless (side note: the party will muse that they may have only delayed Zophar's revival (thus setting the stage for for Eternal Blue). In a way, the Five Princes succeeded, as this they are ultimately revealed to be what allowed Zophar to return to the world of LUNAR... it will just take ~700 years for him to reawaken.
With the Five Dark Princes of the Dark Star gone forever, the four dragons regain their powers and everyone celebrates... Gale is now celebrated as a hero and is invited to become a Knight in the nation of Pao by King Zypher, but he declines and decides to travel the world and maybe retire to Meribia (and run for mayor one day). Forss is invited by Lumos Ausa to join the Magic Guild of Vane, where she hopes to bridge the gap between magic and technology. Falion embraces his heritage and returns to the Magic Guild with Forss and his brother, Lumos, where together they'll help run the Magic Guild. Amaris embraces her heritage as the black dragon and decides to help bridge the gap between human and non-human (beastmen, dragons, etc).
A few random thoughts:
-It's clear I intentionally twist some series tropes on their head here. Gone is a goddess Althena proxy character, and there's no baby cat dragon. Errant is also a Nash proxy, as he turns against the party, but unlike Nash, he never redeems himself, showing that not all people can be saved.
-Since the lead protagonist, Gale, has blue hair, it's heavily implied that he is a descendant of Alex and Luna. In actuality, we learn that he is descended from Tempest and Fresca (and gained his blue hair from her bloodline). His name is the hint -- Gale, like a Tempest. Haha!
-Nall in this story is really depressed and nihilistic having had lived for several hundred years and having had to watch all of his friends eventually grow old and die, so we see him almost process that grief and steady his own emotions like we eventually see in Eternal Blue.
-There's no baby cat dragon that runs with the party this game, as the dragon that hangs with the party is Amaris. She sort of holds the role that Luna / Lucia played in previous games. At the end of the game she, of course, goes on to accept the mantle of being the black dragon. In the first draft of the story I also thought about her trying to become a dragonmaster and failing because she, herself, is revealed to be one of the four dragons, but I removed this as the powers of the dragonmaster are gone with the absence of Althena.
-I didn't explain it very well, but the Five Princes of the Dark Star are Eldritch horrors that are currently an enigma in lore, and in this game they're mostly pulling the strings while their Scions try to gain powers for Zophar's return. I made up the fact that they're trying to revive Zophar, so that's not canon, although they do exist -- we just don't know who/what/why.
-There's no overwhelming love story here, unfortunately. I thought it wouldn't quite work between Gale and Amaris, although I thought that it would be heavily implied, just never confirmed one way or another if their friendship is deeper or not.
-Phacia does appear in the story as an NPC, where she is now very old and long-lived (as part of the Vile tribe) and helps the party find the Star Dragon Tower. She is the only returning character from either Silver Star or Eternal Blue.
That's about it.
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As for life... I'll have to come back and edit this post. I'm about to take my daughter to volleyball. :D
EDIT: Back!
So dang, you already finished FFXV?! I know there's quite a bit of post-game content, so enjoy. I started it the other day but I've put in maybe 2 hours, so I'm still in chapter 1 doing the hunt missions and leveling up Noctis' fishing ability.
What was your favorite part? What did you think of the story? Did you do and of the DLC?
...while I wait for DQ11 to be delivered I'm gonna play it with a friend of mine on Discord. Apparently the S - Definitive Version has dumbed down graphics for its release for the Switch and it's there also for the PS4 version, so I opted to get the Standard Version.
I thought the Definitive Version was mostly the same as Standard, it just included some additional QoL updates and additional (optional) story content. Although the S version on the Switch has lower res textures for obvious reasons. I dunno, though. I own the Switch version but have yet to play it. Let me know what you think once you get into it!
As for me, life's going ok. I made tikka masala the other day, I have some leftovers I'm about to heat up and eat, it turned out pretty good and it was so easy to make once you do it for the first time. It's turning out to be one of my favorite dishes to eat... The recipe calls for chicken but I just made it with potatoes.
Nice! I work with a lot of Indian guys, so we tend to eat a lot of Indian food around the office. I definitely love tikka masala, though. I've made it a few times at home, but my family would rather I make a red or panang Thai curry instead. Using potatoes is a genius idea, though; I'll have to try it!
Who makes it better -- you or the house staff?
There's not really much going on in my life. HR did decide to fire that guy, so we've been having to pull a little extra weight to make up for the loss of manpower. It's also been amazing not having to go into the office every single day; I had three weeks of that, and it was absolutely brutal. I'm also on a little bit of a diet, just because I've put on about 8 pounds since Christmas. No fun. :/
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Ooh. Boo, how can anyone follow that up? :p I had to have a few beers before I was ready to tackle your post, but I have a few responses:
-One thing that stuck out are the male Ausas. Usually Vane is always run by all females so I thought that was a little random/unbelievable not to say male Ausas can't exist but in the games they've never had any.
-I liked pretty much your whole story. I'm a HUGE LUNAR fan and I've never written any fanfics of any sort. In fact, I only just thought of what I wanted to see in a possible LUNAR 3 when you poked-and-prodded me about it. I almost never really ruminate about LUNAR, I just re-play the games whenever I can and memorize the basic lore and try to commit it to memory. I don't really think of "what if?" scenarios just trying to get the canon right.
Um. I've only come up with a few points for what I wanna see in LUNAR 3: I think the game will definitely take place on the Blue Star as it has been restored after the events in EBC so I see you traveling there. I think Lucia can finally be a playable character (as opposed to AI) and she'll be the first main female character for the LUNAR franchise like Terra to Final Fantasy. I think it'll probably be some fanservice-of-game like FFX-2 was with just girls romping around the world.
That's really all I thought of.
FFXV: I liked the cinematics mostly of those scenes where Noctis and Lunafreya were like flowing around in the water flowers. I thought the story was nice. I enjoyed the bro-ness. Sucks that Lunafreya died but she was there in the ending which I didn't get? I haven't done any of the DLC but I kinda wanted to go back to the main game and do all the trophies while it's still fresh.
DQ11: I kinda really like it. It's more up-my-alley than FFXV like smalltown country bumpkin farmboy who finally leaves the gates of his small village which's the only thing he's known his whole life to embark on a big adventure. I like that simple shit. I quite like that it's such a throwback traditional, classic, old-school, turn-based, linear JRPG.
Tikka masala: I love this stuff. I was cooking with one of the maids so it was a two-person effort but I was mostly leading. I used a microplane to get rid of the fibers in the ginger before pounding it in the mortar & pestel with the garlic. I used a lot of oil (I like oily foods) and cooked it, then added all of the spices I learned to go easy on the chili powder this time, then added the tomato paste, then the tomato sauce and I added a LOT of coconut milk to get it to turn a real orange color. Then I just dumped in the potatoes, green peas and cubes of cheese. And I let it boil a lot to thicken it up. It was SO easy to make at home to think I used to pay to get it from a restaurant? I made so much and I plan on eating it everyday for a while. I didn't make any naan I just eat it with rice.
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Regarding hypothetical LUNAR games...
-One thing that stuck out are the male Ausas. Usually Vane is always run by all females so I thought that was a little random/unbelievable not to say male Ausas can't exist but in the games they've never had any.
Yeah, I just like subverting expectations. Figured it would be good to do yet another staple turned on it's head. And I figured one of the two brothers would look more like Lemina, the other more like Mia. Haha.
Um. I've only come up with a few points for what I wanna see in LUNAR 3: I think the game will definitely take place on the Blue Star as it has been restored after the events in EBC so I see you traveling there. I think Lucia can finally be a playable character (as opposed to AI) and she'll be the first main female character for the LUNAR franchise like Terra to Final Fantasy. I think it'll probably be some fanservice-of-game like FFX-2 was with just girls romping around the world.
This is a fun idea! I definitely want to see the Blue Star, and having Lucia again would be cool. Maybe she has to rescue Hiro, or perhaps it's before Hiro gets there?
I liked the cinematics mostly of those scenes where Noctis and Lunafreya were like flowing around in the water flowers. I thought the story was nice. I enjoyed the bro-ness. Sucks that Lunafreya died but she was there in the ending which I didn't get? I haven't done any of the DLC but I kinda wanted to go back to the main game and do all the trophies while it's still fresh.
Okay, so the DLC in the game is pretty much all backstory. One follows Gladio when he meets up with Gilgamesh; another follows Prompto when he was separated from the group (and deals with his origins -- turns out he's a clone); another one follows Ignis and does actually give an optional story path with an optional ending had he and Noctis chosen a different path.
Where things REALLY get interesting was the last DLC, which was a prequel that followed Ardyn and the origins of both his character and the starscourge. It explained everything with him and his brother (who looks a bit like Noctis) and essentially establishes the founding of the Lucis dynasty and the Royal Arms.
There were three other DLCs that were coming out... One would have followed Aranea as she adopts and trains an orphan during the time jump... Another would have followed Lunafreya, who is revived and brought back to life... And the final DLC would have been a massive "true ending" that actually followed Noctis, Aranea, Lunafreya, and Ardyn teaming up together to take on the source of the starscourge itself: the evil dragon king Bahamut. It would have ended with both Noctis and Lunafreya surviving and getting married, and it would have been the real ending to the story.
It really, really sucks that we only got the Ardyn setup for the team-up. They did end up taking the scenarios and writing them into a book called The Dawn of the Future:
https://www.amazon.com/Final-Fantasy-XV-Dawn-Future/dp/1646090004
It's canon and still exists, it's just not in the video game format, which is a huge bummer.
DQ11: I kinda really like it. It's more up-my-alley than FFXV like smalltown country bumpkin farmboy who finally leaves the gates of his small village which's the only thing he's known his whole life to embark on a big adventure. I like that simple shit. I quite like that it's such a throwback traditional, classic, old-school, turn-based, linear JRPG.
Nice dude! Glad it's scratching that itch. Let me know how your experience goes. I'd like to play it one day.
Well, I'm prepping for a presentation I have to give tomorrow morning. It's to my entire department, which is about 300 people. I'm quite nervous, haha... Glad you're doing well, man. Save me a plate of that tikka masala! Haha!
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Hey, Boo. Oop- Late reply.
Tbh, I'd take any LUNAR game they could possibly throw out there rn! :p I'm not one to bite the hand that feeds me!
I can kinda see Prompto as like born in a lab cause he's like fair skinned and blond. It would only make sense! I've been thinking about Final Fantasy XV a lot the last few days after ever since beating it. I guess, I really liked it a lot. After I get done with an intial run of DQ11, I was thinking about going back to FFXV and getting the platinum. And then in the Trophies Menu I see all the DLC, and then the Royal Version... I'm kinda interested in them.
Yeah, I'd had heard about the book.
Sounds like you really know your FFXV I really like the new games (especially this one!), but I find myself going back and reminiscing about the older FF titles too, which kinda makes me think about FF PixelRemaster. The graphics are just so good for the PS4 games.
DQ11 is really good like really, really good... I like how it's so traditional JRPG like: You find a Stick. Attacks enemy with Dagger. Lol! It's just so simple, at first. That's what I really like about it it's like believable if you're from a smalltown village, in the boonies and there's animals in the woods coming in to eat your farm. It's not SO far-out there like most fantasies!
Oh, I liked delivering speeches in community college. My professor said I have a monotone voice though. I dunno if it's because I'm Asian or on the computer a lot. Yeah, I'm thinking about making another batch of masala tomorrow I want my parents to try it out, ...
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Hey, Boo! So, just an update. I'm in a chipper mood today.
So I just got a Nintendo Switch OLED. I'm having a lot of DEEP THOUGHTS now. I was always a Nintendo kid growing up back then before I knew about company loyalty or console wars. I feel more at home on Nintendo. I dunno, it's funny? It made me think about how I like or enjoy text-heavy RPGs on the PlayStation. This kinda brought me back to just want to bounce and jump-around on things without a thought in my head! I kinda wanna maybe try some new games out.
I don't want ppl to think I'm a hardcore gamer in my cave reading long scripts...
But, anyway. I digress.
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I guess, I really liked it a lot. After I get done with an intial run of DQ11, I was thinking about going back to FFXV and getting the platinum. And then in the Trophies Menu I see all the DLC, and then the Royal Version... I'm kinda interested in them.
I haven't played any of the DLC, but they all have positive reactions, so I think they're pretty solid. Something to consider.
DQ11 is really good like really, really good... I like how it's so traditional JRPG like: You find a Stick. Attacks enemy with Dagger. Lol! It's just so simple, at first. That's what I really like about it it's like believable if you're from a smalltown village, in the boonies and there's animals in the woods coming in to eat your farm. It's not SO far-out there like most fantasies!
Yeah, there's a simplicity to the DQ games that's great just because you know what to expect. It's more of the same thing - but in a really good way. The graphics and the music and the entire series is really good. I have to be in the mood to play them, but I like the series.
Also, DQ8 overworld's theme is the best overworld song. Period. ... Also, I also like how they do their overworld with exploration.
DQ11 takes a bit more of an open-world approach, doesn't it? Maybe I'll play it after FFXV. I'm still on Chapter 1 (and don't think I've even played any video games since my last post), DQ11 is a strong contender. Probably DQ11 or Tales of Arise.
I'm starting to get to the point I'm no longer buying video games, as I can wait for them to go on sale and my backlog is just too ginormous. There are so many games that I want to play right now -- Star Wars: JEDI Survivor, Elden Ring, Resident Evil 8, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Stray, Death Stranding, Dead Space Remake, FF7 Crisis Core Remake, ELEX 2, etc.
Have you ever played any of the PirahnaBytes RPGs? They made the Gothic and Risen series, and ELEX was an unpolished but great open-world sci-fi/fantasy RPG that really challenged me. I really want to play ELEX 2.
I just got a Nintendo Switch OLED. I'm having a lot of DEEP THOUGHTS now. I was always a Nintendo kid growing up back then before I knew about company loyalty or console wars.
I generally like games more than consoles and don't have any specific loyalty to Xbox / Nintendo / Sony, but I am Nintendo first for sure. There are SO MANY quality games on the Switch: Zelda, Fire Emblem, Kirby, Xenoblade, Mario, etc. There are a ton of virtual shop games, too. Some indie jRPGs and good PC ports. SO MANY GAMES.
I love the Switch. Obviously. We have two in our house. My kids have been playing Ori and the Blind Forest on the Switch and I've been tapped to help in one or two difficult parts. It's a really fun platformer / Metroidvania.
EDIT: Indeed, I haven't played any games since April 17th. :(
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As I'm playing DQ11 I'm going back to FFXV and doing little things like fishing and finishing up a few sidequests because the last 5 remaining trophies is like eating at me. I wanna finally get a platinum trophy and might's well do it for FFXV so it'll be memorable? :shrug:
I really like DQ for everything we both have said. As I'm playing I go back to thinking how much I enjoyed DQVIII. I don't think about DWVII that often but I know I remember I enjoyed it a lot. I just enjoy video games a lot when I don't really want to think about money and there's something I have that I can pour a lot of time into and really obsess about and that just helps the day go by faster. I think a lot about how I invest say $39.99 for a JRPG now these days I just feel like I get the most out of it and really get a bang out of my buck when I digest all the living text and try to do everything in it and perfect it. C:
I'd say FFXV is more open world-ish than DQ11. DQ11 plays a lot like DQVIII in that there's a main narrative but you can go out of your way to explore and stuff.
Ah,--I'm kinda of a newb when it comes to games PS4/Switch and-beyond. I do want to spend a lot of time with these consoles (I am already thinking about PS5!! :D) but I want to be strategic about which games I buy. I don't really buy, buy, buy collect, collect, collect and have them sit there. I usually buy a JRPG and play it then buy another one. It's REALLY hard to do as I wanna just sometimes blow my money on games. XD
Ah, yes. I'm usually more into the software too myself. I just can't help but feel Nintendo is and has always been more family-friendly? Sony PlayStation has always felt more "hardcore" gamer to me esp during PS1 with all the text-heavy RPGs. :shrug: I kinda maybe wanna move or swing towards Nintendo a bit more and come back to it as I've devoted so much time into PlayStation RPGs already. I mean I know what home is.
Lol. Tales of series is like bottom bitch for me in terms of the JRPGs I plan to play. I just didn't enjoy the first two Tales of Destiny's. :shrug:
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Hey, Boo. Just an update:
-DQ11 is really VERY JRPG. I'm kinda burnt out by it after just having beaten FFXV. I mean all the classical tropes is there. There's one main story but there's so much to do. It's def for the completionists out there, that's for sure. I'm gon keep trudging along even it it means playing in short bursts. :shrug:
-I'm foaming at the mouth at the thought of getting my very first platinum with FFXV. I just finished getting an annoying fishing trophy and I'm working on getting the like last 4. I pop it in whenever I have time to do a little more content. I feel like my first platinum being this would be memorable? :shrug:
-I've been fuckin' around with my Switch and I popped in Octopath Traveler for 8 mins. but I opted for Link's Awakening after thinking about it. I did- have been saying I want to catch up to the Zelda games? I was thinking of getting Skyward Sword HD before even thinking about attempting to tackle Breath of the Wild.
I have been doing a little research on a few games. I kinda wanna get a lifesim RPG/farmsim and a few I have crossed paths with: there's Atelier... I loved the PS3 iterations so might's well cont for it on PS4 but it is lacking the farming aspect that I am looking for though all the items I love and will suffice, there's Animal Crossing: NH/Stardew Valley... I think they kinda have a rivalry tbh i kinda lean towards Stardew more but I'm not gon leave anyone out of the fight I kinda wanna do sommore research on these two before picking one or if I do, there's Rune Factory it seems more my style nowadays but I've have never played it before? I was wondering if you had a good suggestion for a type of game that's not so too serious and I can kinda fire up, put a little work into when I can and sorta build on that? Thanks!
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As I'm playing DQ11 I'm going back to FFXV and doing little things like fishing and finishing up a few sidequests because the last 5 remaining trophies is like eating at me. I wanna finally get a platinum trophy and might's well do it for FFXV so it'll be memorable?
I've finally been able to play a little of FFXV, but not tons. I'm in Chapter 2. Life has just been so busy! I'm thinking about also going and watching some of the other FFXV movies/media when I can; there's the CG film Kingsglaive that shows the fall of Insomnia and the limited anime series Brotherhood, which I think shows more about how Noctis became friends with all his buddies.
I also picked up Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition, which is sort of a demake of the game as a more traditional jRPG that streamlines the plot and gameplay. Reviews for it are surprisingly good, with some even feeling it's better than the parent game. I haven't had a chance to start it, yet. It's on the Nintendo Switch and a few other platforms.
Tales of series is like bottom bitch for me in terms of the JRPGs I plan to play. I just didn't enjoy the first two Tales of Destiny's.
The series is pretty hit or miss for me, although there are a few in the series that are really, really good. Symphonia, Vesperia, and Xillia are all really good. Long stories and the battle engine is sort of like the Star Ocean series with the live combat. I haven't played any of the other games in the serires, but supposedly the latest Arise game has been amazing. Really, really good reviews. I like the graphics, as well.
Moving onto DQ11...
-DQ11 is really VERY JRPG. I'm kinda burnt out by it after just having beaten FFXV. I mean all the classical tropes is there. There's one main story but there's so much to do. It's def for the completionists out there, that's for sure.
I've heard this! I think Arise is similar, to be honest.
-I've been fuckin' around with my Switch and I popped in Octopath Traveler for 8 mins.
I actually haven't played either of the Octopath games. I love the graphics style, but those kind of ensemble stories that don't have a coherent save-the-world premise sort of bore me. I got really bored with the Saga games for that very reason, so I haven't really taken the plunge.
I opted for Link's Awakening after thinking about it. I did- have been saying I want to catch up to the Zelda games? I was thinking of getting Skyward Sword HD before even thinking about attempting to tackle Breath of the Wild.
Link's Awakening is AMAZING. It's one of my favorite Zelda games. Skyward Sword is good. If you can pick up Twilight Princess, that's probably my favorite next to Link's Awakening and Ocarina of Time. Breath of the Wild is a lot of fun if you like open world games, so expect to put in at least a hundred hours if you do end up playing it.
...I kinda wanna get a lifesim RPG/farmsim and a few I have crossed paths with: there's Atelier ... Animal Crossing: NH/Stardew Valley ... Rune Factory seems more my style nowadays but I've have never played it before?
I can't really recommend anything on the sim / farming front, as I don't really play those games. There's a part of me that wants to play the Atelier series, but in reality, I need a really strong story and sense of urgency to move me along. I tried playing Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon games in the past, but I get bored really quickly.
I hear the Rune Factory series has leaned pretty hard into the exploration and battle elements with the more recent iterations. That sounds more fun ALONGSIDE the sim elements without overshadowing it, and Rune Factory 5 has definitely piqued my interest. Let me know where you land.
Anyway, hope you're well buddy. On the home front, I'm just trying to get my kids to summer break. Work has been exhausting but solid. We did end up firing that guy and he's sued the company (of course), but I think our documentation was rock solid and we were justified per HR.
I'm also being eyed for a promotion soon, which will be nice -- whatever it would be, it would likely pay more and be less stressful. It would be a different type of stress, but less headache overall, so I'm definitely interested. It will be a few months before there's even any movement, though, so it's heads down until then.
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Hallo.
-FFXV: I'm 2 trophies away from getting the platinum, not including the plat. itself, I just have to walk around a lot w/ Gladio and I have to defeat the adamantoise. Rn, I'm doing lit'l things to prep for the adamantoise fight, like trying to get the Zwill Crossblades (best attack/weapon in game) and Dark Matter Bracelet. ("Dark matter" shout-out to Chrono Trigger!) I also have to hunt down a few ingredients for some of Ignis' better dishes so I can be well-prepped for the battle. I'm just playing in short bursts.
-DQ11: I'm, like, 72hrs. in and I'm just trying to hurry along the story at this point and beat the game & move on to other games. If I like it enough, which I already think I do, I might decide to re-play it maybe even getting the S - Definitive Edition.
-Tales of: I did not like ToD1+2, so that has soured me for the rest of the series. I might pick up Tales of Symphonia for PS4 and pick up from dere doe.
-Star Ocean: Rn, I'm planning on dling Star Ocean: First Departure R for PS4. I think there's a PS4 dl-only version and Switch. It looks like it plays 'zactly like SO2 and that was my favorite game for PS1 so. I'm kinda making it a priority.
-SaGa: Yeah. Did not care for this series. There's a pile of trash RPGs for PS1 I tried to beat in my backlog but decided it's not worth the torture. Let it rot.
-Zelda: Yeah Link's Awakening is pretty fun. :smile: I'm aiming to get Skyward Sword HD + Breath of the Wild physical but I'm gon have to dig into the Nintendo Online store and see what other oldschoolass Zelda games they have up to offer. Maybe ALttP or Majora's Mask, is where I left off?
+Glad you're doing well in family + career. As for me I'm just doing my "48 hour day" thing and staying up gaming. The farm is alright, I mostly just stay at the house. I got a haircut today and feel fresh. Usually in my downtime, I'm blowing money on Shopee just picking up essential items for home, and some gardening shit. Dogs is doing ok. Nothing all too... exciting. Lol
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Nice, dude! I just got in from a work trip. I was in FL for quite some time for a project, and it's good to be home (although I'm utterly pooped). Nothing exciting here, either.
I did pick up LoZ: Tears of the Kingdom but decided to hold off. I had started a little indie gem called Even the Ocean and decided to finish it, as it's only a 8 to 10 hour game. I've been able to get through three of the story locations and I'm really engaged, although it's certainly an odd one. Reviews for Tears of the Kingdom have been absolutely glowing, so I may play that next.
Unfortunately, I don't think I've played any FFXV since we last chatted. I still want to play the FFXV Pocket Edition, but it may be a while. A part of my wants to wait until finishing FFXV so I can compare the two experiences.
On the home front, my daughter made the volleyball team, so that's exciting. She finished one of her volleyball leagues and is now onto the next. She's even going to the gym with her team to try and build upper and core strength. I go to the gym at my office about twice a week (I don't want to get buff or anything, just keep healthy) so it's sort of funny to suddenly be talking about weights with my 11-year old.
Anyway, keep living the life, my dude. I'm looking forward to our next gaming adventure together (probably in the fall or winter)!
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Nice, dude.
A lot of gaming news has happened to me the last few days. So I basically "beat" Dragon Quest 11 I mean the credits rolled and everything but there seems to be some post-game carp I'm trying to get though. Rn I feel kinda tired of the game tbh like it just won't die or end but it looks like I'm pretty close to finishing it so might's as well. It seems like a 100-hr. JRPG for sure. I'm not surprised in the least cause I put 195 hours into Dragon Warrior VII it was really strange reaching 80hrs in that game and knowing you only finished half of the story. lol Yeah. Dragon Quest VIII was a really fun experience though I really hope they remaster it and put it out on PS4 Pro or somethin'. :thumbsup:
I've been sorta gravitating back towards FF games, just in the last few hours I've been noticing. I had a grand time with FFXV and now I just got-in Final Fantasy VII Remake and I just love my thoughts I'm having when I'm playing it. I dunno if it's nostalgia or rememberance. But it's comfort. I'm kinda sorta into shopping for video game trinkets and stuff like little toys aside from just game boxes and jewel discs. I dunno, why? lol
Star Ocean: First Departure R is pretty basic, and simple and my thoughts is so stoic playing through the beginning. lol I kinda like that about me. I sorta lean to "basic, simple, beginner" RPGs like Mystic Quest and the like. There's something ... about it.
Keep up the super dad stuff!
As for me, I'm still staying up an extra 2-3 days now just gaming, getting work done and enjoying my life. I just hate sleep. After 72 hours of no sleep - actually falling asleep and waking up doesn't really do anything for me anymore like it doesn't make me feel rested or even good anymore. I think a lot has to do with the heat here in the Philippines it affects me and everythig I do so-much. I know you're a runner have you ever tried Liquid I.V. before? It's like a rehydration+electrolyte drink mix. Tbh, I was so desperate to feel that 'hydrated' feeling I ordered some and tried it I think it works pretty well. I have also cut out energy drinks, and instead have been guzzling back down Gatorade like oldschool style. Water doesn't do anything for me - "in this heat" - I think researchers are right when they say you need more than just simple water to rehydrate properly you need the electrolytes, the salt & minerals that your body sweats out to go back in. The heat/hydration factor has been killer for me the 5 years I've been here but I think I'm starting to figure out the lack.
I've sorta been gaming/and watching/researching/analyzing Survivor with such a fury recently, and just sorta taking a nap or lying down during the daytime when the heat is the worst and waiting for it to pass, sorta moving around more at nighttime.
Anyway hope you're enjoying!
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Hi, Boo! Are you still there?
So rn I'm doing the Hard mode for FF7R and trying to collect all the trophies. It's really fun. Most of the time I'm spending time e-windowshopping for RPGs to add to my wishlist, and trying to get my hands on some hard2find RPGs here. The market seems diff from the US so I'm still studying it a little bit but I'm having good luck so far with getting stuff I want. :thumbsup:
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Hey man,
I had a reply drafted but apparently never pressed send. I'm alive and kicking, just underwater. School is out and the kids are home for summer break, so it's a madhouse in these parts. I also started that new job role at work, but they haven't backfilled my old job, so I'm pulling double duty. I'm in the office every day for the past three weeks or so, and will be until the second week of July. It's exhausting, and not leaving much time for games, haha...
I'll catch up with you shortly. Hope you're doing good, man. I'm glad you're loving FF7R and and hopefully you saw the trailer this weekend for the sequel! It looks AMAZING!
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Hey, Boo.
I got a couple of games:
- Harvest Moon: Child of Hope Complete Special Edition
- Star Ocean: First Departure R (PSN)
- Dragon Quest Builders 1
- Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (PSN)
- Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book
- Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky
- .hack//G.U. Last Recode
I also ordered a few more coming in:
-Final Fantasy Type-0 HD
-Secret of Mana (PS4)
-Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age
-Shadow of the Colossus (PS4)
Been really excited about my PS4 Pro, and I'm collecting for it rn. I think I'm gon concentrate on the Atelier series since I like it so much. Lemme know what you think!! :p
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Man, I'm jealous of all the Atelier you're about to play! It also looks like you have a solid backlog for the near future.
- .hack//G.U. Last Recode
I played the very first .hack game back on the PS2 and enjoyed it, but never got around to beating it. I remember getting frustrated at some point (probably a difficulty spike) and never got around to finishing it. They did the Last Recode remaster a few years back and boy do I wish they'd do the entire series as a single game remaster.
Same with the Xenosaga trilogy. I never did finish the trilogy and I'd really like to; I loved the first game, enjoyed what I played of the second, and never got to touch the third one.
-Secret of Mana (PS4)
A nice retro remaster. The Switch remake of Trials of Mana is excellent, as well. Secret of Mana is one of my favorite games of all time - right up there with Chrono Trigger and Elder Scrolls: Morrowind.
- Star Ocean: First Departure R (PSN)
A nice one! I played both the original SNES (via an English translation ROM hack) and the PSP First Departure, and I picked up the First Departure R, as well.
The Second Story (aka Second Evolution on the PSP) is the best of the series, IMO. I also hear that it's getting an update similar to First Departure R, so I'm waiting with bated breath. It literally just leaked in the past few days and hasn't officially been announced, but it's much needed.
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As for me, I've had very little gaming time but I have been delving a little into both Final Fantasy XV and finally into Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. I'm on Chapter 3 of Final Fantasy XV and have been going around collecting the Royal Arms and fishing (ha), so it's slow progress. LoZ has been amazing, though. I could gush but I won't, haha...
Seeing that you just finished Final Fantasy VII Remake, did you see the trailer for part 2? It looks friggin' fabulous. Did you get to play the Intergrade version? I have so many questions with the last ending with Zack.
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Hey, Boo.
So, I've been going crazy w/ the video games lately. I just have my eye on so much stuff like 2-or-3 things and I wanna buy them before someone else gets to it!
Yeah, I enjoyed the first .hack game too it took me until way later to beat it as I wish I gotten the rest of the games cause they're good! Yeah I have Xenosaga I + II but not part 3.
Secret of Mana was one of my childhood favorites so I had to! I thought it was so mysterious and not much text! I loved everything about it. I've never tried Elder Scrolls.
Yeah, SO2 is my favorite as well. I only boot it up to do item creation and play until I can get to the Cooking Battle and stay there, I don't even care anymore about beating the game. Suikoden II does this for me too the cooking competitions and mini-games are so much fun I don't even care about the end-goal anymore!
Ya, I've heard about SO2 remake, not remaster? and I'm excited too as well. It's prob my fav PS1 RPG if I had to choose.
I feel bad that I Platinumed FFXV and did nothing else with it. It's just sitting right there.
Lol, I was playing Link's Awakening but I haven't been playing my Switch much! I'm just too in love with my PS4 Pro. Yes I did see the trailer but no, I haven't played since only on PS5. I thought Zack at the end was just random actually... I forgot he existed...
BUT!!--I did dl FF VI Pixel Remaster and I think it's great!
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Boo.
Are you still there? I've been having tons of fun here on my side of the world I hope things is going great for you too as well I wish for you only the best, of course. Uh. I kinda *Terra reverted* to some old-time classics rn on for PS1 or PSX whatever: Uh concurrently doing Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (PS4 PSN dl) and Persona 1. These are both 2 terrific JRPGs.
Are things still going good with you not bogged down @ work? I'm finding myself with a LOT of free-time these days and just,-I just have time to game AND do a lot of other meaningful personal cool "life" stuff. I'm wErking on social-media and trying to expand my screename and my side-business here. ("Hush-hush.")-type-a stuff lol anyways lol.Hope you're still doing good? I hope I didn't freak you out or anything I just love JRPGs uh a lot!! 🙂🙂
K. ... You still there?
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Hey man!
Yeah, still here -- it's been a crazy eventful summer. I've been meaning to come back and give a life update, but yeah, haven't really had the chance.
First off, I changed jobs back in June/July. It went into effect on 7/10, but some of the responsibilities started back in June. Long story short, my job was insane -- I was working really long hours, tons of projects, and it was just always high stress. I keep track of my resting heart rate, and it's gone down between 3 and 5 bpm just in having changed roles.
The new job is different, though. I have a lot more people management responsibility. Less meetings, but the meetings I do have are normally 1:1 and focused on career development, issues at work, stuff like that. So it's just a different type of draining. I also have to be in the office almost every day -- before I was going in 3 days a week, now I'm in 4 or 5 days a week. Technically I can still be in 3 days a week, so I just have to figure out that balance and how to make it work.
The one thing I'm not liking about my new job is that a lot of my stakeholders are a closeknit group of frat bros. Some of them are cool, but some are super stuck up and have not been receptive and welcoming, so I have to deal with those personalities and navigate carefully.
The kids are about to start school back up, so we're about to be back into the swing of things with sports and school events. I love it, but it's also stressful and time-consuming. They were supposed to start today (Tuesday) but it was delayed to Friday due to issues at the school building.
I'm wErking on social-media and trying to expand my screename and my side-business here. ("Hush-hush.")
I'm definitely curious to hear about the side business once you're at a place you can talk about it. I still really think you could turn your love of jRPGs and videogames into something -- youtube, twitch, a journalism website, something.
Have you ever watched Boundary Break on youtube? You make like it. I think the channel is called sheesz -- the guy just breaks videogame engines and explores the 3D models and how scenes are setup and stuff.
As for my video game time, I haven't been playing much. I am still slowly working through Final Fantasy XV. I think I've only played twice in the past month or so, and I'm still in Chapter 3 going around doing hunts and finding the Royal Arms that I can. I intentionally haven't gone to Lastellum to see Iris yet (nor have I gone to that region yet), although I can.
What little time I have had I've been playing Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on my Switch. The going is slow, but I've beat 3 of the 4 regional phenomena and found most of the shrines. It's a great game, although I'm starting to feel a little burnt out on it and may take a break to play another game.
I'm really, seriously considering getting a Steam Deck so I can play more games. Part of the hard part for me is that I can only game in short bursts or on the go, so that would be helpful.
Anyway, I'm hanging in here. Just parenting and work taking up all almost all of my freetime. Around Dec/Jan things should slow down a bit and I still plan on us tackling another old school jRPG. Not sure if we'd want to play another LUNAR game or try Chrono Trigger or something else. We can figure it out when time gets closer.
Thanks for checking in and reminding me to post! You're the man!
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Hey, Booster-liciousdood. ! :)
Er, well I just tried out Earthbound and my AV2HDMI is acting a little wonky. So if we can totally skip the SNES that'd would be fine. It still works (33 years!) connection to video is wierd. PS1 and onward I can do. Would you be up for Chrono Cross since this's a Chrono website and all? I'd love to do the Chrono games series with you. We seem to be big fans since we're still here! :):p
You still seem strong no offense I mean you're typing coherently enough no typos. o_O If you were really brunt out you'd just disappear. I know you can do it. Tbh, to be honest, I learned a lot of techniques from my Dad he's a barber and he just talks to the customers nonstop like he makes sure to watch the game the night before so he has something to talk about etc. I work in restaurant and I can talk to anyone abt. anything. To be honest, I'd just bring up something wholesome and family-friendly like anything on T.V. EVER. And, you should really get back on Survivor, fraternity boys like LOVE Survivor. Everybody does family, kids et cetera. I wouldn't bring up video games at work. Or the internet. Or music. Hell I wouldn't bring up even my parents' names.
Fraternity boys: I suggest Survivor. and das' it Don't let them in on anything else in your life or what we do here on our safe space. Just ask them if they know "Nick Stanbury" or something and be hella formal abt. it. They should know who he is. "Jenna Morasca" was in a brother fraternity too. She was a Zeta jacket. So was "Rob Cesternino." Just bring up those 3 names and if they don't know them their house must be small and whatever. Bring cut them down to size with your social game and who you know. Heck, ask them if they know me: "VidKid369." Everyone knows me online I've been on since AOL with the same exact screename. *raspberries* They can be annoying but I mean what can you do?
Aiit. RPG-talk. *cracks brain into place* I'm on Revelations Series: Persona 1 and& Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth.
I'll watch Boundary Break/sheesz.
I was in a fraternity in college but it was weird. They don't like White/Latino or; and Other. They said it's too mix-mixed. Pilipino/Spanish* "Whatever that means." I auditioned for a lotsa other stuff too.
I dunno why you're stressed with your kids it should be fun. Just watch T.V. with them maybe you can squeeze Survivor in for yourself or a baseball game. Tell them if they're excited for the Olympics next year? Asia vs. The U.S. me and you next year man? Movies to watch with kids: I like Selena, and the Nip/Tuck FX Series.
You don't talk about your wife too much I noticed.
My dogs are fine.
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Would you be up for Chrono Cross since this's a Chrono website and all?
Chrono Cross would be cool! Although I may try to squeeze in a Chrono Trigger playthrough beforehand (if time permits). I've told my daughter that I'll give her $50 if she plays it and beats it, haha... Trying to introduce it to a new generation through incentivized manipulation, haha... My daughter has really gotten into the Metroidvania's -- the Ori series and Hollow Knight, in particular. But they're incredible hard games and she gets frustrated and moody, so I'm trying to get her to play some other games that may be a bit easier on her nerves. Since school is back in session, she's only allowed to play on weekends so her grades stay up.
I dunno why you're stressed with your kids it should be fun. Just watch T.V. with them maybe you can squeeze Survivor in for yourself or a baseball game. Tell them if they're excited for the Olympics next year? Asia vs. The U.S. me and you next year man? Movies to watch with kids: I like Selena, and the Nip/Tuck FX Series.
It's just the hustle that's stressful. My kids are awesome. I work in the city five days a week, which is a guaranteed 8-hour minimum work day, plus a minimum 2-hour minimum commute. I often wake up at 5:30am, get to work by 7:00pm, leave work at 4:00pm, and then head straight to volleyball or soccer at 5:00pm. I've promised to be the dad that doesn't skip games or anything, so it's important to me to be involved. My dad was around and is a good guy, but he definitely put his job first when I was a kid and didn't really show up to a lot of those kind of activities (sports, writing club, etc).
We've been watching the Karate Kid movies, haha... May go on to watch Cobra Kai or something. Of course, the new Star Wars series, Ahsoka, is out, so that's cool.
We've also finally got a proper soccer club here in our city, so we've gone to a few pro American soccer games. They're a blast. I would love season tickets next year, but I doubt I'll have the time or can afford them.
You don't talk about your wife too much I noticed.
I never realized that! My wife is awesome. We have our ups and down (like any relationship), but we work hard at maintaining our love. We tag-team a lot and it's a good partnership. We met we were really young and have been married for years -- over 15 years, actually! That being said, we're SUPER different though. She's very introverted and doesn't have many hobbies, lol... We joke at the memes that talk about cliche white chicks and she is very much most of the generalizations, haha... She loves Ugz boots (or whatever they're called), Starbucks, and scrolling for hours on Instagram or Facebook. Not that any of those are bad, we just have very different interests. She doesn't play video games or enjoy the nerd culture stuff that I do, haha...
Fraternity boys
These are the kind of guys that never left that frat mindset, though. I was also in a fraternity (although it wasn't a national one because the liberal arts college I went to refused to host real fraternities). Some guys never outgrow those college days and never mature or grow past it, and these are the types of guys I'm talking about. They're sort of the guys you'd see in a movie - like in Old School or something. They're not bad guys or anything, they just tend to be very tribal and a "boy's only" club. We work with women and the women definitely don't get the same equity or equality. They sort of act like "you're either one of us or you're not," and quite frankly, we're too old for that shit and it's counter-productive.
Anyway, enough about me -- how's the farm? Tell me how the doggos (and chickens) are doing! What kind of trouble have you been getting into? Have you been getting enough sleep? What are you playing now?
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Hey, I saw your reply-post, but I just waited a few days cause you take awhile to respond and I'm mirroring you. (LOL! not)
Well, I need to just tinker ard. with my SNES. The- It might just be the Earthbound cartridge and how hard-pressed all the menus are in the beginning of that game. I might pop in CT and see if it works fine? Yeah, I like that idea of getting your daughter to play. Maybe she can go to Halloween as Marle: Make a straight up on top of the head ponytail, and pull it down a lit'l & and use gel to keep it up. Like she's casting a magic spell. LOL!
Yes, I will get my kids to play RPGs too. I actually quite find them relaxing as f Hell. Idk, I played video games every afternoon after school and I got straight A's and a perfect attendance all 4 years of High school. So I don't see the problem? o_O; Maybe she's just socializing too much at school. Tell her to concentrate on the school's academics.
Brb.
I was home alone all the time.
I've been watching Studio Ghibli. And like jail stuff. I'm trying to emulate prisoner culture and locking myself up in my work like a mad scientist. I get a lot of stuff out that way. Soccer? Don't know too much abt. that but I loved kickball.
Yeah, I make what people memes sometimes too.
https://i.imgur.com/6qFjzLE.jpg https://i.imgur.com/2k8Lx1Y.jpg
I have a hard time saying white cause of my teeth so I just say what lol.
I think they're Ugg boots and Janice Dickinson (model) said they're very out of style now. I'm actually surprised you said that and she still owns a pair, I haven't seen those around since 2004. Yeah, I love chai tea latte it's my go-to at Starbizzucks. I'm on YouTube but I will do Insta, Twee-turr, Snap and TikTok is just bottom bitch app for me. I'm a very social, Asian nerd. She can add me if you want. I just see frat guys as just hoosier-like and into basketball. :_shrug: I have a few buddies in frats at San Jo State and I NEVER minded the sub_culture. I think they see me as a informal brother of theirs' actually. :shrug: Like they don't wanna let me in but I'm in and everyone knows I'm very IN like having rent free at a INN in RPGs. :shrug: I live rent free in their minds and I don't care.
No, keep talking abt. ur-selfz. It's good. I want to add a sign to the gate. Dogs is good. Chickens is good. No trouble. Very #happylifes:). I've been doing 3day binges and #nosleeping #noblinking. Sleep is for the weak. You can sleep when you're dead. Been saying that since Hish School. "What are you on?" Revelations: Series: Persona 1 - I did Alana, I'm concurrently doing Ellen's. Then, Brad. And Chris. Visible Panty: Lines (Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth). And I wanna start a new game of fft.
I have a random question for you?! Maybe we can get-to know ea. other a lit'l better! What's your favorite "TOWN" from JRPGs? I have my list/and, answers ready but I want you to go first, unless you want me to post first. Ok, I have to go into Castillejos today so I'll be kin'na biz. C U N Time, Boo!!!!! :p
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I've been watching Studio Ghibli.
Ghibli films are like comfort food for me; they're nice to have on in the background. My daughter grew up really liking My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service. What have you seen and what are you looking so far?
Yeah, I make what people memes sometimes too.
https://i.imgur.com/6qFjzLE.jpg https://i.imgur.com/2k8Lx1Y.jpg
Haha, I don't really follow memes or meme culture.
I think they're Ugg boots and Janice Dickinson (model) said they're very out of style now. I'm actually surprised you said that and she still owns a pair, I haven't seen those around since 2004.
I think my sarcasm was missed, hahaha... I was being sarcastic in describing my wife as wearing Ugg boots and Starbucks. I was just saying she's very vanilla and sort of generic white girl. She probably fits any 30-something white girl starter pack / wide generalization. She's owned Uggs but you and Janice are right - I don't think they're really "in" anymore.
I've been doing 3day binges and #nosleeping #noblinking
I'm guessing this post is on day 3 of one of those no sleep binges, eh? Just messing.
What's your favorite "TOWN" from JRPGs?
Good question, I may have to think about this one... Off the top of my head, I like the idea of the quiet, safe, rural country town; places like Domina from Legend of Mana, Dali from Final Fantasy IX, or Winhill from Final Fantasy VIII come to mind (Winhill sort of breaks my heart, though, as it definitely feels like a post-WWII European village that is struggling to recover). I also like some larger non-industrial kingdoms/cities, too; again, off the top of my head Ding Dong Dell from Ni No Kuni and the sky city of Bhujerba from Final Fantasy XII come to mind.
I think If I had to pick a single favorite (and would love to live there), it would be a toss up between Besaid from Final Fantasy X or Arni from Chrono Cross. Both of them have sort of Polynesian, oceanic vibes and are smaller coastal villages. I imagine living in such places would be both a blessing and a curse -- you're far from the comforts of a large city and isolated, so there's probably not much going on with meeting new people (or dating). But the people that are there generally - at least in the games - seem happy, content, peaceful, and live in general harmony with each other and mother nature... And let's not forget about the ocean. The ocean is my jam - my goal in life is to live near/on the ocean one day. I feel like there's a calm and more laid back demeanor that comes with living by the ocean and major bodies of water. It's very palpable having lives far inland most of my life.
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Uh, I was gonna read and reply my thoughts later. But I have a thought already. I will edit in the rest of my post cause I am super busy with and swamped with work.
I like 5-lettered exactly town names from RPGs. I'm confused at your contradiction you said "We joke at the memes" followed by "Haha, I don't really follow memes... ." Like you say one thing and totally say the opposite later.
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I like 5-lettered exactly town names from RPGs.
Oh, nice. Looking forward to it!
I'm confused at your contradiction you said "We joke at the memes" followed by "Haha, I don't really follow memes... ." Like you say one thing and totally say the opposite later.
I've seen memes and I know what a meme is - they're everywhere. If we happen to see a funny one, in the moment we may share it with each other. But I don't follow any meme channels or really seek them out. It's moreso if one gets recommended to me and I find it funny, I'll show it to my wife or close friends. But that's not that common. I like memes, don't get me wrong, just saying that I'm not that deep into the meme world, haha
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Hey, I was in the Dischord (Cyan's SwdTech) and said I was gonna create a local name since I think people have a thing with using your Global screenname across all platforms, - So I'm just trying to fit in. I decided to just pick like a generic, RPG character name and Chrono Cross was on my mind so if they see my sn they can say C.C. I don't want to be just like Schala. Anyway, its me John.
You said something so funny. Why is that a white thing? I go into Starbrizzle all the time and get my Grande Iced Chai Latte no problem they knew me at this one place they were like spoliers no one gets that e'cept you John. Anyway I do a lot of "white" people things too like living in Fastfood.? shrug I drive an Honda, I have 2.5 bath 1.5 dog white picket fence.?? Lol its not out of the ordinary. I worship Clayton Kershaw. I guess I DO do the crackers with no salt thing. And just like living basically. lmafo
I mentioned I live in The Philippines but I am White/Latino and; or Other from California. I just play RPGs and watch Survivor. I'll think up a really nifty avatar later. I grew up on AOL basically. I mean, I'm as internet as they come. They all come from a smalltown, in the middle of America. Any chance we gon' star aup an New file offor Chrono Cross? I'm think abt. just backing up Chrono Trigger on my Switch. I mean I don't have a thick accent or anything. I think I'm educated enough. I'm just a homely, homey kinda a guy. How's lifes over where your're at? Its going swimmingly over here. Just wanna binge on RPGs for 2 years or something like that summat and its been great having a buddy online to jerk off with. My dogs is good. I like to make my own memes sometimes I'll try to concentrate on any type of other "white people" if you want me to. I think the little what boy/sad what girl is a good one its always a very s'pecific gesture we do, huh? I'm ruminating to you now.
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Lol. Cont.
Hey, woo. I've just been SA busy with my workload like I've come to loves internetculture and kinda making friends online and stuff Boo your're the best. I still pretty much like talking in a Public forum just bec. I think IMs is so sheisty like you know its nice when everyone can join in on the conversation and a lot of my RPG research, analysis & speculation I do out of the love of my heart and I don't expect anything in return, I love RPG gaming and being a adult now and having more freetime to reeducate myself w/ith the basics again lols. Its a dangerous world (world) out there and maybe I need to strategize aloud with anyone.?? Hehe. Anyways I have tons of shtuff I wanna tell you abt. my findings. Well right now I've been having Zelda Enhasa-like daydreamings... and I'm doing Final Fantasy Tactics. My dream points me in that direction so far.
That's my main game so far. But I always wanna do a 2nd and third. I'll think about it. I love playtesting a bunch of random inklings of mine. So staying On Topic.. Reals Lifes is going good just doing characters online and chatting. Segue into games.. Well yeah just fft. like a ninja moving its foot The sound it makes.?? Hehheh. I might just concentrate on that and bust on my PS4 for randomninity's sake. Dreams is rill'. Andasit. ..... Well yeah. So mhm ok. I'll catch you on the flipmode, B. buhrr (Bye.)
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Welcome back! The VidKid becomes the CC! I may have been able to change your name via moderator controls. Not really sure, since I don't do much with those except remove spam and ban bots every few days.
You said something so funny. Why is that a white thing?
Gwah ha ha! Something along the lines of this basic white girl starter pack is what I was referring to when poking fun at my wife: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/so-true--90494273746396586/
I'm pretty sure it was an older one and not that specific one, but I remember showing my wife and we both laughed at how she fit most of the stereotypes on the thing. I say all that in a sarcastic/joking tone, of course -- all in good fun. She's great (obviously, seeing that I married her and all, haha).
How's lifes over where your're at? Its going swimmingly over here.
Awesome! Glad things are going well! Things are going well here, too. I'm feeling much more balanced when I have been the past few months. Luckily, the new job is finally balancing out. I'm still going into the office every day (and thus have little free time), but the job has been going really well and I'm not feeling the stress of it anymore. My boss and my stakeholders are really happy, and there's talk of both another promotion and another team/portfolio early next year.
On the school/kids/wife front, volleyball is about done and we're about halfway through soccer season. I've hardly had a chance for any video games, but that's okay. I actually haven't played any non-Switch games since August -- so that means no Final Fantasy XV in over a month! I have played a little bit of Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, but not much. I have found all the shrines but am still doing some more collecting before I take on Ganon and wrap it up. It's so much easier for me to be able to play games on the go instead of being bound to a PC/television.
I've come to loves internetculture and kinda making friends online and stuff Boo your're the best. I still pretty much like talking in a Public forum just bec. I think IMs is so sheisty like you know its nice when everyone can join in on the conversation
I'm with you, homie. I am partial to old school forums like this. Discord and "chat-based" apps are cool and all, but if you're not on regularly you can't really keep a conversation going and the whole room will move on. I like forums because you can reply when you want and it's much easier to keep a thread of the conversation. I dunno, plus people seem to be a bit more relaxed. I've met a lot of cool people here at the Compendium and you're definitely one of them! To me internet friends are as real as IRL friends.
Anyways I have tons of shtuff I wanna tell you abt. my findings. Well right now I've been having Zelda Enhasa-like daydreamings...
Tell me dude! I'm here for it!
I'm doing Final Fantasy Tactics
FFT is such an amazing game but one I've never been able to beat. I played it on the original PSX and then again on the PSP, and I always got about 2/3 through the game before getting stuck or sidetracked. I have, however, beat both of the Final Fantasy Tactics Advance games. I do think the original FFT game was the best, though... I found the plot more engaging and loved the darker fantasy world with deep political storylines. The last time I tried playing it (probably about 10 years ago on the PSP), I maxed out Ramza really early and grinded for weeks. I am pretty sure I got him to level 99 (or close to it). Then I ended up running into a random battle where I had to fight, like, a dozen monks, and they stomped me. I tried and tried and could never beat the battle. I can't remember if I could proceed past it or not, or if the defeat just killed my desire to play the game, but I do remember sitting it down after that, I intended to come back, but it never happened. Alas!
There's a lot of good games out right now that I really want to play. Star Wars Jedi Survivor, Cyberpunk 2077, Starfield, the Dead Space remake, and Lies of P are all on my mind. Alas, not enough time for games!
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Hello, sorry I was organizing my online lifes lol. I guess this's now my alt. name so I was thinking about the interpersonal dynamics of using it, lol. I might just use it for whenever I'm just on alt. lol. I'm very picky, specific and particular I don't just make up random letters and number combinations. It needs history. Oh, its fine I read a prompt earlier that was like "Can't change player name."
Uh, when I think typical, basic "whitegirl" it has to be white polo shirt from Hollister open collar no buttoned, denim skirt frayed, white kicks. And that's basically it. Unique name? Any stereotypes abt. us white guys? -- No salt on crackers is a must. .
I've just been having a lot of deliveries.
I'm mostly on PS3 -- MARATHONING Reality T.V.. I'm on fft, Persona 1 and I kinda wanna restart Arc the Lad. I'm playing Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (Visible Panty: Lines.)
I play alottsa ORGs (online competitive reality tv-based game(s)) and one just started, you make/get into a character and vote ea. other off. I'm pretty well-known ard. the parts-circle. I like Forum PMs and its always just another AIM knockoff like FaceBook Messenger. Its really the same thing over again.
Haven't had any dreams lately just gaming reg. now. Named abv. I like adding perople on PSN -- you got an account?
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I play alottsa ORGs (online competitive reality tv-based game(s)) and one just started, you make/get into a character and vote ea. other off. I'm pretty well-known ard. the parts-circle. I like Forum PMs and its always just another AIM knockoff like FaceBook Messenger. Its really the same thing over again.
I had no idea that was a thing! I just did a Google search and it looks like it could be fun.
I like adding perople on PSN -- you got an account?
I do, although I honestly couldn't tell you what it is, haha... I haven't played anything on the PSN since the PS3 days. Maybe look up Avarice_Blue or AvariceBlue or something along those lines? That was the handle I used for video games back in the day. I think it's my old Xbox handle, too, haha...
Not much going on here. Work's still stabilized and been going really well. The kid's are well - my daughter's volleyball team placed in the district but didn't win the #1 spot.
We're also going to the mountains for a vacation. I actually will have very limited internet, so I probably won't be checking in here until I get back. My neighbor is going to watch our animals (and she'll be paid well for it) and we're going to unplug, spend some time in nature, and enjoy some much-needed family time away from the hustle and bustle. Sometimes it's good to step away and just get a change of scenery.
I guess all I can say is...
(https://lpix.org/3148360/047.png)
:)
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Hey Boo, sorry I was just in a headspin. Lol Uh, I'll Send Request those searches but you have to sign-on and confirm. I still play my DVD Player a.k.a. my PS3 I'm doing steins;Gate, Hakuoki, Arc the Lad Collection & Assassin's Creed. For PS4, I'm doing Secret of Mana & Visible Panty: Lines (Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth). -th name. Aeristh.
My dogs is well. I'm writing for reality and that's going well I think I just got Excel to work and I sign-uped a Microsoft account it Works should've came with the Dell though wired? Anyways
I realized again I'm kinda freaked by real people on T.V. but Survivor is nice. I'm expanding my social media- hey do you have InstaGram|Twitter|SnapChat|LinkedIn? I'm sure you have a LinkedIn, let's link up? ....
This's my Local act. now. But you have my main hub.
I'm still getting used to Dischord (Scien's SwdTech) Um. Just doing Shopee deliveries it just rained here in The Philippines and I got a chest breath. I'm trying to start a recipe book for my fambam but I was thinking of collecting all the Food data from RPGs and just starting off with an RPG Cookbook, what are the staples in Chrono Trigger|Chrono Cross? In LUNAR, its mostly grog loaf. Hey for some reason it keeps aksing me the fault questions over and over for ea. post. 😐
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I was just musing to myself, and all that stuff abt. Marle|Frog|Ice/Water but I was just noticing I'm partial to the element of Air and was wondering why it's not in Chrono Trigger? What's your take on it, I know we just like to discuss now. Why is there no air? Has anyone ever asked that question before?
Srry. for the dbl.-post.
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Hey hombre!
For PS4, I'm doing Secret of Mana
Man, Secret of Mana is one of my all time favorites. It's not as good as Chrono Trigger, but it's pretty damn close. Right after I first beat Chrono Trigger in 1996, I ran to a FuncoLand and picked it up. I knew next to nothing about the game, but liked the art style and knew that it was made by the same company. The first time I played the game I even named the lead character (whose canon name is Randi, I think) 'Crono,' and the princess was named 'Marle.' I can't remember what I named the sprite (who I thought was a girl).
I picked up the remaster/remake on PC but have yet to play it. One of these days...
My dogs is well. I'm writing for reality and that's going well I think I just got Excel to work and I sign-uped a Microsoft account it Works should've came with the Dell though wired?
Nice! I am working on an excel document right now, myself. Having to do some budget planning for 2024 and it's a pain.
I'm trying to start a recipe book for my fambam but I was thinking of collecting all the Food data from RPGs and just starting off with an RPG Cookbook
DUDE. This is a solid idea!!! Could be something you could set up on Kickstarter. I'd back it!
The only things I can think of off the top of my head is "Jerky" from Chrono Trigger, and "Hekran Bone Soup" from Chrono Cross. If I remember correctly, I think the Bravely Default series leaned really hard into food - especially desserts. FFXV also comes to mind -- that game had some AMAZING looking food. I'll have to keep thinking.
Hey for some reason it keeps aksing me the fault questions over and over for ea. post.
That's weird. What kind of questions?
I was just musing to myself, and all that stuff abt. Marle|Frog|Ice/Water but I was just noticing I'm partial to the element of Air and was wondering why it's not in Chrono Trigger? What's your take on it, I know we just like to discuss now. Why is there no air? Has anyone ever asked that question before?
Oh man, great question. I always really liked the elemental representation in Chrono Cross better than Chrono Trigger. Ted Woosley's English translation of Chrono Trigger also had some differences from the Japanese version. For example, Crono's element in Japanese was called 'Heaven' and was moreso lightning/light/holy/air, whereas it was just called Lightning in the English version.
The Japanese version actually makes more sense when you think about it... the magic elemental books that you can open in Zeal (to find Balthasar's secret laboratory) are of fire, wind, and water... so even in Zeal, they viewed the Heaven/Lightning element more akin to wind.
So yeah, I like the whole Holy/Light, Shadow, Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind (which also sort of had plants/life) thing in Chrono Cross. Whether or not the elements are actually from the Reptite dimension or are the truer interpretation of the planet's elements, well, that's a whole 'nother theory.
I've actually been wanting to play Chrono Trigger recently. When we were on vacation last week I told my kids the story of Chrono Trigger as a sort of bed time story over the course of several nights. They had trouble remembering all the characters, but they were pretty into it.
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Hey I read your post but I'm really busy, I'll edit in a complete response later,
I saw Chrono Trigger is available on PS3 PSN Store rn and I don't think its the anthologies compilations version so just a heads up I'll buy it if you wanna do another dual play of CT
Edit: Good. That's nice that your kids are into your bedtime stories. I'm more into swords you seem to be more into elements.
Its Ted Woolsey but that's fine everybody seems to have a hard time remembering that guy's name. I think he pretty much did all of the RPGs for SNES's Squaresoft library, to some degree. He moved onto Xbox now I think. And they were located in Redmond, Washington at the time. Lol, I'm such a stalker and read the boxes and manuals. As a kid.
Well, I like to stick to our translation. I think its easier that way. Usually when a site has a Japanese section of the game I just never open it. I'm like fixed American innate. Um! Well my first thought was just that Ayla has no magic. Then the two Shadow magics. And that's pretty much it. I got confused when you said Reptite magic cause I thought magic didn't exist yet in the Prehistoric era. And most people are just like Survivor, or something I incorporate. Like, water, food, water, food. Sticks. Rocks. Doesn't Ayla have a move where she throws the enemy up into the air? That's the first thing I thought of? And the Dactyls's fly.
Yeah, I am playtesting a bunch of RPGs rn and SoM is one of them. I'm just thinking since I live on my own and I have to make food I might's well just use my love of RPGs and actually learn something from them like lifting all the food names and desc. So I know what to create when I'm at home by myself. Like, I guess its a good start but Secret of Mana leans heavily into candy. I guess chocolate and jam, honey is just 'Candy.' And it does perk me up a bit when I feel sleepy.
All I remember from CT is in the Future they had no food. So shrug. In the Medieval Ages/Dark they had tons of food almost a surplus cause of wartime. Present Millennial Fair they had soda, sack lunches, cat food. Food for animals, even special. Sweet water in Ayla's. Zeal seemed kinda empty as there was no food ever mentioned I don't think they just seemed zealous to me hence zeal. Just magic-obsessed. But can you create food?
Maybe I take RPGs too literally but I'd never kickstart my idea for a RPG Cookbook. Its my own personal idea project but I'd probably just post it online for everyone else too lol. Cause I think its kinda cool! :D What's up with you and the casseroles? I've still never had one yet in my lifes lol. Seems very... meme. Like what you were talking about the things only white people do. Yeah, no problem with that though. I remember my one friend freaked out cause I've never had stuffing. It just tasted like bread and turkey mashmush.
With no gravy or anything. Very dry, stuff, lol!!! :p
Not even no white sauce.
I'm just doing a Excel document for Suvivor Social Visibility.
Its asking me who's the princess...? And what's the "default" name of the timemachine?
Yeah, I mostly stick to the American. I don't like to confuse myself and go crazy.
Edit (2): I will pick a avatar tonight, cause I know everyone hates when a mu poster posts without one.
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I got confused when you said Reptite magic cause I thought magic didn't exist yet in the Prehistoric era. And most people are just like Survivor, or something I incorporate. Like, water, food, water, food. Sticks. Rocks. Doesn't Ayla have a move where she throws the enemy up into the air? That's the first thing I thought of? And the Dactyls's fly.
A common theory is that the elements (as equipable/consumable "items") came over from the Reptite/Dragonian dimension as seen in Chrono Cross. That's what I was referring to.
I will pick a avatar tonight, cause I know everyone hates when a mu poster posts without one.
Naw, nobody cares at this point. We're just happy to have real posts! :D
Did you ever play Wild Arms? I tend to listen to podcasts and long-form YouTube videos to and from work, and I recently listened to one that talked about the Wild Arms series. It's a series I've NEVER played, but I'm really curious about it. I really liked that mid-to-late-90s era of scifi westerns like Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, etc. and this is a series that always evaded me for some reason.
I even backed a spiritual successor on kickstarter called 'Armed Fantasia' a while back. It's much of the same development team as the original Wild Arms, and it looks (and sounds) awesome:
https://wildbunchproductions.co.jp/eng/
What's up with you and the casseroles? I've still never had one yet in my lifes lol. Seems very... meme. Like what you were talking about the things only white people do. Yeah, no problem with that though. I remember my one friend freaked out cause I've never had stuffing. It just tasted like bread and turkey mashmush.
We don't do that many casserole's in my family, but we def do some every now and then -- normally when we do them they're a side dish. Like green bean casserole or stuffing mix. You're not missing out, though.
Tonight we're doing homemade shoyu ramen with chashu pork and all the topping, plus some pan-pried gyoza.
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Yeah, the consumables function as just herbs right? I dunno why they have innates.
I’ll take it down then.
Yeah I did.
I mostly eat whatever.
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Why didn't you respond? (lol)
Hey, I was waiting for you to confirm dl on PS3 PSN Store: Chrono Trigger? $2.99, American.
I was thinking about it and it looks kinda cool SNES is kinda down now, lol.
Backup-dl-copy?
Also on the topic of elements: I want to do Air, Plastic, Glass and (cooking) Oil.
Being a step up from the rest.
Btw what does YOUR family call it plastic or seran wrap?
We can cont our Let's Play! series: with CT. (Chrono Trigger)
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Hey, I was waiting for you to confirm dl on PS3 PSN Store: Chrono Trigger? $2.99, American.
Go for it! I don't know much about it, although I'm guessing it's similar to the DS version that was ported to iOS and Steam a while back?
Also on the topic of elements: I want to do Air, Plastic, Glass and (cooking) Oil.
Being a step up from the rest.
Haha! The elements of COOKING! The ramen was excellent the other night. I've started buying enoki mushrooms and they're one of my favorite things to add to ramen these days.
Btw what does YOUR family call it plastic or seran wrap?
Oh man, solid question. I've had to think about this one and I'm not even 100% confident in my answer. I think we call it 'cling wrap' - I know growing up we called it seran wrap, though.
Hope you're having a solid one!
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I don't know if it's 11/4 there in your time zone, VidKid (aka Chris Cruz), but happy birthday! I hope it's a great one and you get to celebrate in style.
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Omg, how do you know its my birthday! Well, thanks.
This's so hot local accounting lol.
Okay, anyways back to posting in style. Profile. Ok, I ordered at $10 USD giftcard, and I'm waiting for it. I have 9.72 in my book rn. I dunno, we were just talking abt it on GameFAQs and we all is in agreeance dat its just all the same original SNES cartridge but they add load times with for whatever ADD reasonings. I dunno. Lol
Ray-men yeah! Fried enoki mushrooms is good I guess I dunno what dipping sauce shrug. What kind of ray-men? If I could have my druthers I'd pick like uhm... besides shrimp tempurra cause that's cheating uhm, lol uh has to be miso base cause that's just hecka good. Uh I guess the soft pork bone broth one is good but I'm totally thinking of something hella plain john lol! I guess its not miso base cause that's gross. Is there beef tempura Udon? No wait. I like the curly wavy noodle too. I think I just get the tempura. What-ever
They have to use plain water lolol.
Why don't you wanna say cover wrap? Lmao Boo. Wait, you buy the circle one that has a elastic string that's super small and reverse gaping
Yeah you say seran cause the other alteration is wired.
Yeah
Yeah why don't they ever make SPAM ramen like you know they want to in America?
You should try saimin.
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Omg, how do you know its my birthday! Well, thanks.
You told me a while back, and I remembered. :)
Ray-men yeah! Fried enoki mushrooms is good I guess I dunno what dipping sauce shrug. What kind of ray-men? If I could have my druthers I'd pick like uhm... besides shrimp tempurra cause that's cheating uhm, lol uh has to be miso base cause that's just hecka good. Uh I guess the soft pork bone broth one is good but I'm totally thinking of something hella plain john lol! I guess its not miso base cause that's gross. Is there beef tempura Udon? No wait. I like the curly wavy noodle too. I think I just get the tempura. What-ever
Dude, a strong tonkotsu with some spiciness added is would be my absolute favorite. I feel like it's also the hardest to make if you're making it from scratch, since you need pork bones and it's a very slow boil. I usually do shoyu just because it's easy, and sometimes I'll stop and buy fresh miso (white or red) and do a miso base. It's all good to me! I'm not much on seafood, though, so I don't really make much seafood-based ramen. I think a shio or shoyu would most commonly be with seafood, but I'm not sure.
I like to simmer some bamboo shoots in garlic and soy sauce and add those in... sliced green onions... fresh gari... of course enoki mushrooms (I'll throw them in raw and let them soften in the piping hot broth). If I plan ahead (which isn't that often), I'll make ajitsuke tamago the day before so they have time to soak, but sometimes I just have to do a regular soft egg.
Growing up I loved Maruchan instant ramen, then started to buy some of the fancier products like yakisoba and stuff. Once I went to Japan though and tried the real stuff, it's so much harder to eat the instant kind. Of course, it's like $12-15 a for a quality bowl of ramen here in the SE US, whereas you can get the same in Japan for like $5-8. Anyway, it's one of my favorite foods.
Yeah why don't they ever make SPAM ramen like you know they want to in America?
I actually like all the spam stuff. Spam ramen... spam onigiri... Spam sashimi... Although I won't say that I love the stuff. I just like it. And generally don't order it unless I'm eating at an Asian restaurant that's more like a Hawaiian-style; apparently they have a lot of Asian fusion foods there that use spam, hahaha...
You should try saimin.
For sure! I've tried it a few times and liked it. It's just harder to find, especially on the west coast.
I was thinking about all the food stuff and the Star Ocean series definitely has a lot of food in it. I picked up Star Ocean First Departure R a while back and really should play it, especially now that Star Ocean Second Story R is out. SO2 was one of my favorite RPGs on the PS1 back in the day, and to this day I've played through the game several times but never actually beaten it. I've finished the first one both on SNES (an English-translated ROM) and on the PSP.
Fun series, and I really wish they'd make a GREAT game that would really put the series on the map. There's so much potential with the sci-fi/fantasy fusion, and I don't think they've never successfully capitalized on it as much as they could/should have.
Why don't you wanna say cover wrap? Lmao Boo. Wait, you buy the circle one that has a elastic string that's super small and reverse gaping
By the way, my wife added this to the grocery list and she definitely called it 'seran wrap,' hahaha! So I guess that's both of us that calls it that. Just how we grew up, I guess!
Anyway, I hope you had a solid birthday and got to do something fun. I'm prepping for my week -- it's going to be a full one.
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Wow, you're like Speedy Gonzales with hitting the reply. Jk. Anyways, I have a initial thought before I reply in detail: I think I'm a pretty good cook too I just taste what I'm doing as I go through the process and find that daci I'm looking for I guess me and everybody likes savory over sweet and salty. I'm just like everybody else. And but, I like to actually shamone into things explaining how or why I'm eating what I cook, and I didn't just look up a ramdon recipe on YT. I think thats more just like honest. I find it wired when people just know how to make something. Anyway I'm still doing my RPG Cookbook thing and just to say I'm learning something from video games and not just a deadbeat.
Did I? lmao I thought it's just in my profile.
My memory posted tonkotsu on my Facebook I thought that's why you said it. I don't really like ray-men too much if you remember that one really Japanese judge on Iron Chef she said its really too oily for her. I don't want to shine more than I already do. I really don't understand those random Japanese stuffs. My favorite is Chili. Yeah What? Its just funny to me RPGs. I worked on my birthday.
Hey I have CT in my cart whenever your ready to play it
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I'm a start without or with you, mang. Lol
Village
Dling rn...
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Wow, you're like Speedy Gonzales with hitting the reply.
Things have been a little slower right now. Both of the kids don't have sports just yet, so we've got our evenings free again, haha... Our in-laws are moving to our city, though, so we've trying to help them house hunt and get everything ready. I've had a little bit more time than I have since spring, luckily.
Anyway I'm still doing my RPG Cookbook thing and just to say I'm learning something from video games and not just a deadbeat.
What's been the coolest thing you've discovered or made since starting your jRPG foodie adventure?
My favorite is Chili.
Nice! My wife makes a mean "texican" chili. She also makes a pretty good white bean chicken chili, although it's not as good as her normal chili.
A guy I work with also does an incredible version where he smokes a steak and diced it real good before it adding it to his chili, and then he puts the whole vat of chili in a smoker and let's it sort of absorb some of the smoky flavor. I'm sure my description isn't really doing it justice, but what he makes is amazing!
Hey I have CT in my cart whenever your ready to play it
I probably won't be able to start anything until around Christmas time, but I'm ready!
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That sounds fun. What are you gonna do in the meantime? Maybe taco night? Both sets of in laws? Thats gonna be crazy. Why so suddenly concerned about both of you? From where, out of state? Why not let them take you to Home Depot? And then you can sneak off and look at a tire while wifey looks for pot? Well to be honest San Francisco is like Open Houses GALORE my Mom and I would househunt since I was an expert child everytime I would call her and tell here's an open today and we go check it out afterschool/work. You would love it there. I thought things were slow but you have a lot of time?
I like udon noodles w/ mushroom soy sauce (I think it's Thai), just that tempurra dipping sauce and das' it. I don't know what that is. And I tried to make "potato-chicken" soup: stirfry trinity of your choice onions, carrots, garlic, oil, water throw in dice potatos rosemary and chicken cubes boullion I forgot if I put cabbage or not? It was a hit at the house. No salt no black pepper.
Oh, I meant Maruchan has a Chili flavor its the green packet.
Its REALLY the best.
I dunno, my friend Daniel (he's like half white/Chinese) always would eat afterschool and make steak with soy sauce and onions. LOL! I think we had rice too.
Well, I started already.
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Have you guys thought about changing the Bookmark? Its really hard to find as it says "News and Updates" it should really just say Chrono Compendium Forum or something like that summat?
Hey, you're not UndineBlue are you? I'm sorry I'll search for Avarice_Blue|AvariceBlue rn. And what happened to Linked|In? I'm sure you have one I'm not gonna let it go cause I mean everyone has a job.
Edit:
Oh, hey I checked both sns and you're not there. Are you sure they're right?
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That sounds fun. What are you gonna do in the meantime? Maybe taco night?
Let's see, since I last posted, we've had... Spaghetti and homemade garlic bread... Homemade pizza... went out for hot chicken and waffles... had lazy buffalo chicken wraps... and indeed, we had a beef taco night, haha!
Both sets of in laws? Thats gonna be crazy. Why so suddenly concerned about both of you? From where, out of state?
Just my wife's parents. My father-in-law got a killer job offer at my company and he's taking it. He'll be living with us while his kids finish out the school year where they live now and/or until he can find the right house zoned for the school(s) he's targeting. Right now they live about four hours away. Him living with us should make for an interesting winter (and maybe spring), haha... We went house hunting and looked at schools for their kids last weekend.
I thought things were slow but you have a lot of time?
Things are slower -- not as much time spent on sports and school events, so I actually have a little bit of downtime (as opposed to everything being fast-paced and non-stop events). Part of it just the descent into winter, things always slow down a little during this time, although obviously the holidays end up making things wild.
I've really not had much time to play video games since summer, although I did finally beat Tears of the Kingdom a few days ago. It took me over six months to beat! I started it in May and it's been the main game I've been playing.
I have, however, picked up Star Ocean: The Second Story R for the Nintendo Switch. I also pre-ordered the remake of Super Mario RPG, but that doesn't come out for a few more days. According to Steam, the last time I've played Final Fantasy XV was on 10/7, so it's been a hot minute. Although I did manage to put about 4 hours into a game called Lies of P the past month or so.
You saw how slowly I played LUNAR 2, and when we played that it was the ONLY video game I was playing at the time. So yeah, I'm not really doing much with the video games right about now.
Well, I started already.
I assume you mean you started Chrono Trigger. Nothing wrong with that, we can pick something up in the winter. Maybe Chrono Cross or something. I dunno.
Hey, you're not UndineBlue are you? I'm sorry I'll search for Avarice_Blue|AvariceBlue rn.
Nope, not me. I honesty have no idea what my PSN user name is, I haven't logged in since the PS3 era. But my Xbox user name is indeed "Avarice Blue".
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I don't really like spaghetti (its too hard to spell) one time I told a co. 'I don't want your dirty f!@#$%^' spaghetti.' and he like, got his feelings so hurt, and wanted to quit his job. HAHAHAHAHA I dunno about garlic, I think about my breath cause I'm a fresh young thing, single ready to minx. Pizza's always good. Tops! In S.F., in the 90s, Peter's Pepperoni Pizza fed the neighborhood I met so many kids I'd eventually go to school with. Oh, hot chicken that's so um a little cracked out (winkwink hinthint) oh, those sound good buffalo anything is so S.F. we used to have a little field in Golden Gate Park that had buffalo but it could be a different animal. At Chipotle, we had 4 meats: Chicken (signature/most popular/anything you think - always sells out), Steak (spicy), Barbacoa (this's the signature dish) and& carnitas which's not spicy AT ALL and good for kids and old people. When I make tacos for myself I usually get 2 carnitas and 1 steak. and all the fixin's but I think people zero in on me on my meat choice. lol And you HAVE to use the Green Tabasco bottle/the chipotle one is for the employees.
To be honest, when I lived in the US - the local law enforcement thought I was suspicious cause I was at home when I was like 19 and they made a big deal that it's not "My House" and its "Parents' House" - even in RPG's its always called "Mario's Pad" or "Crono's House." I hated the US if you aren't totally whitewashed white person. lol Like Ancestry.com- territory. I kinda wanna make a thread at my HomeBoard about "Normalizing Living With Your Parents." Do you wanna check out my usual haunt? I'm sure everyone wonders where I hang out online all day. https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/survivorsucks/ #civillianstalking #police #onlinestalking
I notice Zelda has a big thing with air and wind. Do the characters' hair ever moves?
Yeah, TOTALLY Star Ocean 2: The Second Story R / Super Mario RPG Remix. I'm playing Rena's game file on PS1 rn.
I thought our LUNAR 2 run was magnifique.
Yeah, I'm playing Chrono Trigger right now. I'm still at Truce.
Well, can you find it? Or maybe make a new one so we can connect on video game online.
You don't have a social media presence?
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I'm hyperventilating using the computer. *!NERD ALERT!* 8)
Hey, Boo I had some queries about Chrono Trigger that I felt warranted another post. I was just wondering what you thought of my random inquiries: ? You can't use Revive to restore yourself if you're alone. If you get 100% points does it reflect or absorb. It counts your saves, omg. "How much?" I feel like customer service should just get to the point. People get mad when I say "my house" but look its says Crono's House. So, what's? Is it cause its single-parent? I found a food item Tonic ITEM Restores 50 HP You can't unequip and be empty-handed, that's weird in Final Fantasy culture.
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I just find that a little taboo.
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Yeah, TOTALLY Star Ocean 2: The Second Story R / Super Mario RPG Remix. I'm playing Rena's game file on PS1 rn.
I definitely am looking forward to SO2R, I hear it's been excellent and the QOL updates have been stellar.
Well, can you find it? Or maybe make a new one so we can connect on video game online.
I can look, although I am literally never on the PSN, so not sure there's much value there. I'll try to track it down and share it, though.
You don't have a social media presence?
Correct! I don't use any social media outside of Discord, sometimes on Reddit, and here. I have gaming accounts on most of the major platforms, though. I used to have Facebook and Instagram years ago but deleted my accounts. I also had a LinkedIn profile but I don't have an active account. Probably next time I go on the job hunt, which seems a ways off at this point.
So from a social media "connection" perspective, you can find me here, on Discord (which I'm rarely on), or a video game platform. I just never use PSN, but will try to find out what my user name is.
I also have email, of course. But sorry, man. I like being disconnected and am sort of private IRL. I also like not having to see opinions I don't care about (haha), drama, all that crap. Of course, there's tons of good stuff on social media, too, but my life is easier and less stressful without it.
Although I have told my wife I need to create a burner Facebook account so I can use Facebook marketplace, haha... I hear I'm missing out on that.
Anyway, onto fun talk about video games!
You can't use Revive to restore yourself if you're alone.
Ha! True. Although SO has that handy Resurrection Idol or whatever it's called. It would be cool to have something similar in CT.
If you get 100% points does it reflect or absorb.
Do you mean 100% points in what? MDEF?
It counts your saves, omg. "How much?" I feel like customer service should just get to the point.
Haha! Yeah, this always annoyed me a smidge... I don't care about the number of saves. I can't imagine many do, although I guess this is there for that 0.0001% that does care. Haha!
People get mad when I say "my house" but look its says Crono's House. So, what's? Is it cause its single-parent?
When I was a teenager I wrote a prequel concept to Chrono Trigger which explained where Crono's dad was. In my story his name was 'Trama' and he was a clockmaker from the militaristic nation of Choras. He would be trying to stop another time traveler and save the timeline. One of his allies was Eliza, Marle's mom. Anyway, the game would have ended with him accidentally changing the timeline into what we essentially see in Chrono Trigger, and in this new timeline, Choras would just be a normal little village and no-longer a militaristic nation (because he changes history somehow). I don't remember details, but his adventure eventually set up events for Chrono Trigger, although it was never a fleshed out concept.
I found a food item Tonic ITEM Restores 50 HP
I never really thought about a Tonic being a food item, but it may very well be a tonic drink of some kind! What about Ether?
You can't unequip and be empty-handed, that's weird in Final Fantasy culture.
Too lazy to create weaponless sprite animations, haha...
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Basically adding Save Anywhere? Back in our day, we actually used Save Points! :lol
Yeah, you always talk about Zelda and Switch right? I moved on from Nintendo after SNES. I dunno, whenever you fire up your PSN, don't do it on my account though?
Even Retirees are on Face|Book you should get w/the program Boo? Eh, Reddit, my Chinese friends use it I just know it as the Hellhole of the internet and I never go there, at college my professors insinuated not to reference Wiki but I think they really also mean Reddit too as well. I did create an account to re-connect with my friends from GovTeen, though. And one of my int'l friend's Org. I'm naturally skittish I don't try to awkwardly do that. Eheh, why'd you delete it? (Facebook and InstaGram) There IS the ability to block people. Yeah Linked|In is pretty cool if you're American and have a job and you skip around the table about Linkedin I mean I don't know what to say about the person then lol. I dunno with Corona and everything I'd be careful not to get canned, I'm looking out for you on the other tribe!:)
K, resident Chrono Compendium. Real-time chat seems like drug deal. Which we're not compatible on. I dunno, you don't like PS1's RPG Library,--I mean if you liked SNES's RPG Library?
Are you like this at work? I remember you were talking about how its hard to talk to people at work but maybe they think its hard to talk to you. I dunno you talk about your wife, and kids, to me all the time here on a public forum lol? You are aware anyone can read this? ...What? lifes*? I dunno the only people I know with no social media presence are in jail rn. lol You mean a fake account? If you don't want to use your real name I'd just avoid it forever but I mean you don't care about the mailman and Amazon deliveries, amirite? LMAOO
Ok I'm just wondering why they give you one. I think this canon is all across the board. Correct me if I'm wrong the only exception off the top of my head is the Sacrificial Buddha from Suikoden. But per its name you have to kill yourself. MDEF. I dunno I think they skip around the table around that one. "How much?" Get to the point. I think its kinda cool. #no. of saves1. I dunno is CT the only game that does it? Isn't Marle's mom the Queen? And her name is Leene. You don't like militry stuff?
Tonic I think of mineral water. LOL And Ether I just think isopropanol. LOL Well actually, tonic, is probably that bubbly, flavorless soda water. Uh you'd think that'd be the first initial concept design.
Edit: LOL, I have a funny story, Boo. I tell everyone about how in 5th grade my friends and I would have lunchtime roundtable and I aksed my friends, Miles, "How do you pronounce Marle?" And he said, "Marley." But another funny one, is lol, I was playing Chrono Trigger in my gameroom and my Mom was just there doing whatever and it was me (Crono), Marle and Lucca and I went upstairs to Crono's bed and took a rest, and SHE FREAKED OUT and said, "Are they having SEX?" And I repeatedly said, "no, they're just sleeping on the same bed all three of them together" and SHE FREAKED OUT EVEN MORE. So I just turned it off, switched my party to Frog and Robo and got in the bed,. and it made her go "m'ok'ay." LOLOLOL
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Hey Boo, where are you? Lol
I was just kinda thinking about how Chrono Trigger asks simple kiddy traditional questions to players like, "Does your house have a Gate key?" I notice my previous house in the US does have a Front door with a Gate attached (you need a key), and we have a Gate here on the property in The Philippines. And it does kinda seem like a Filipino thing to have a metal gate to the house.
I'm not saying its that simple.
And didn't the party entrust the Gate Key to Lucca?
I just notice the Philippines is very concrete, and Spanish windows. And we still use traditional metal doors. I don't think many houses use that in the US, but I do notice it in San Francisco--kinda Victorian.
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Even Retirees are on Face|Book you should get w/the program Boo?
Eh, Facebook is for old people, haha... Boomers and such.
I just don't ENJOY social media. I'm an introvert at heart, and I just don't *enjoy* social media as a whole. It's as simple as that. Facebook connections don't need to know my business, lol... if they're close enough with me for me to care what they think, I'll talk to them in real life or on the phone (or text message).
Believe it or not, there's a lot of people out there who don't use social media. At least here in the states. I'm not the only one in my IRL friend group who likes being off line, so there's at least two or three of us, haha!
In my opinion, LinkedIn is about as bad as Facebook. It's full of peacocking and postering and every other post is a humble-brag. When I had it 90% of the people reaching out were recruiters or people trying to sell me certifications and stuff. That may because of the nature of my work and it's somewhat of an area that is in high demand, but LinkedIn got annoying, so I got rid of it. I'll reactive it when I actually need it and when I'm on the job front.
Are you like this at work? I remember you were talking about how its hard to talk to people at work but maybe they think its hard to talk to you.
I'm not sure what you mean. I don't think I'm hard to talk to, and anyone who knows me IRL doesn't think so, either. At work we also have email and IM. The only thing hard about talking to me online is that I don't use social media and that I don't log into here or Discord frequently, so like daily interactions don't really happen. So maybe you meant more like I'm hard to reach?
I know I talked about some frustrations at work with my new job and trying to build relationships with the new team, but that's all fine and dandy now. It was just general frustrations starting out after my promotion and was like maybe a month total. They love me now!
I dunno you talk about your wife, and kids, to me all the time here on a public forum lol? You are aware anyone can read this?
Sure I talk about my life, but not any specific details. It's all generic talk without names or identifier details.
The way you care so much makes me think you want to steal my identity or something. Besides, like you said, the only people you know that don't use social media are in jail, so maybe I'm also in jail and all of this is a great big con to steal your chicken farm?!?! Just kidding to all, of course.
K, resident Chrono Compendium. Real-time chat seems like drug deal. Which we're not compatible on.
I'm on Discord, dude. You have my Discord info. If you want more real-time chatting, that's where it's at. You old fart with your Facebook! :P
Edit: LOL, I have a funny story, Boo. I tell everyone about how in 5th grade my friends and I would have lunchtime roundtable and I aksed my friends, Miles, "How do you pronounce Marle?" And he said, "Marley." But another funny one, is lol, I was playing Chrono Trigger in my gameroom and my Mom was just there doing whatever and it was me (Crono), Marle and Lucca and I went upstairs to Crono's bed and took a rest, and SHE FREAKED OUT and said, "Are they having SEX?" And I repeatedly said, "no, they're just sleeping on the same bed all three of them together" and SHE FREAKED OUT EVEN MORE. So I just turned it off, switched my party to Frog and Robo and got in the bed,. and it made her go "m'ok'ay." LOLOLOL
That's hilarious. I remember two of my friends and I back in like 1996 arguing over how to pronouncing some of the names. Marle as 'MAHRL' or 'MAHR-LAY' was definitely one of our disagreements.
I have more stories but I'm gotta to jet. We're going out. I'll edit this post later and add more detail.
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Double post.
All this talk about Chrono Trigger really makes me want to play it later. I haven't played it in years, truth be told. Since the DS version came out, I've only even played that version. I can't recall or not if it includes the original Woolsey translation or just the new one.
There were a few things I really liked about the new translation. I like that they gave Magus a more ominous and intimidating title as 'the Fiendlord.' I also really like how they refer to the Ice Age era as Antiquity.
Did you ever play the ROM hack the Compendium did years ago in which they did a new, 100% accurate (or as accurate as possible) translation from the Japanese version? That was fun.
I'm not sure if you've played any of the ROM hacks. I know you're more of an OG console player, but there are some good ones out there. Schala Edition, Chrono Trigger Plus, just to name a few. Not to mention Crimson Echoes and/or Flames of Eternity.
That may be a possible game we could do a playthrough of after Christmas. Or Chrono Cross. I also wouldn't mind playing through Secret of Mana again, although this time I think I'd want to play the newer, enhanced version that came out a few years ago. I have it on PC but haven't played it, yet. It's another one of my favorite jRPGs.
Once we decide on a new game, I'll create a new thread and we'll see if anyone else wants to join in. If not, we can always just take it to Discord PMs. I'm down for whatever. I'll probably have to play in 15-30 minute increments on whatever play, just because I have even less time for gaming than I did last winter. I'm still in, though!
Anyway, FIL is coming to live with us today, and he'll be living with us for a while, so I'm going to be sharing my office space (which is also where I play all of my non-handheld video games). It will probably be until summer 2024, although it's possible it could end a little sooner. I'm helping him move in today, so wish me luck!
Catch ya later, homie!
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(Oh God, I had 8 tabs of Discord/Chrome open on in the background.) Hi Boo, I have just awoken from a long sober trip. My Dad made a deal with me to take my medication again, kinda like the Elder paying you 10G to cluck like a chicken.
Well, my take on Face|Book is in college we just used it to trade textbooks and maybe aks if there's a party going on that night? Oh, I was just thinking of early Japanese internet-circa around the time SNES RPGs were coming out like Chrono Trigger and they kinda poke fun at anons that just stay on e-mail and do the 'Silent Protag' thing, kinda like Crono. I was just thinking about you and the staying anon thing and it almost kinda seems like a gloryhole everytime you sign-online to the internet. I don't know if you want me to be a anon as well? I was just saying if you wanna check-out my Facebook you can see that I'm a real life person? And I always have been honest about it ever since I was like 10 years old on AOL 4.0. Well, I concentrate on the 'social' part its a way for me to get my tentacles out there in the cosmos. Kinda like a social experiment.
I dunno, we can exchange e-mail addresses if you want someone to talk to and you don't even have to log onto the Compendium.
Thats good! I dunno would you even want to talk to someone who DOESN'T care? Oh, I actually said I don't like real-time chat cause it seems sheist and almost kinda like drug dealing I prefer dealing on a public forum where everyone can read what I post, even the police and FBI. I like when Big Brother watches me. And if he's watching me he's probably looking at your house too.
Now I think its just Marr like Marboro.
Dude, I'm playing it right now. I'm in front of the Porre Elder's house grinding 10Gs going in-and-out to buy everything on the island especially Melchior's Lode Sword and I'll'd be super pumped up for the next little bit? The PS1 is good. Oh, I marry with Ted Woolsey did he really do the translation or just some parts of it cause I know NASIR codes and stuff lol. And I think there's a woman too. Oh, fiend I don't like that word cause its a letter away-off from Friend. I think thats the worst word in the English dictionary. They can come up with something else. Oh, ROMs I think my friends online told me to stay away from phish, phishing and emulation so I just do. Yeah they definitely jealously-induce tempt me but I just stay away. To be honest, I think all the coders think of everything and they want you to play their version. Like they thought of all that stuff already. Sure, I'll dl one of your emus, or Chrono Cross or even Secret of Mana (PS4?) Ok, its up to you what you want to do with the thread. (I have another meme I'll post.JIF) Oh I prefer dealing in public forum BUT IF YOU WANNA DM ME go right ahead!! We can always do it off-Facebook (Twitter, InstaGram, SnapChat... I think all the kids is on Tik Tok rn) Yeah that was totally fun. Slow is hot.
Dude, tell your Father-in-law I said hi and I have a gift for him: How do you like my HomePage? Tell him to register a screename and post with me! I love chatting with my friends' Parents! (Hyperlink: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/survivorsucks/ Do you like my HomePage? This's my village and everyone kinda isolates their own little island for themselfs. Tapatalk is a huge messageboarding community if you just wanna get lost, in it, lol. Old people LOOOOOVE Survivor Sucks.
Dude I found this ad for Chrono Trigger on Shopee a Amazon-like app here in Asia. I was also wondering about the Chrono Trigger Official Soundtrack and if you know how I could get ahold of it,--the one with the fried eggs? Kid looks just like Crono. Do you guys really look like that?
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Hey I noticed Chrono Trigger went from a floating trademark symbol, to now a completely registered trademark. You work in business. Do you have any thoughts on that? I majored in Business Admin. I think most people come to America to patent a trade, which’s what my Dad did. Filipino barbering. My Mom and I decided to work for an already existing company. She started at the Monticello Inn in San Francisco. Do you even lift, bro? Yeah, words.
Hey, I'm still getting that Bad Gateway 502 error arnd. 6:47 P.M. my time. You said who has to fix it? Anyway
Wasn't Chrono Trigger like the RPG that opened the way? Like, Dragon Warrior never really interested us that much and we never really got it. Chrono Trigger was dark, and more mature & religious significance but it was geared towards kids? I just think word-of-mouth cause I talked abt. it a lot at school during the time. I go online and guys really LIKE that A LOT. FFT has accumulating and allocation though. I always say PlayStation games is pretty much more for Gran Turismo and once you start w/the custom customizing I mean, wrestlers customize their body.
I think Tech pts. and Job points is pretty similar from Final Fantasy Tactics. I think a lot of RPGs grab from CT, but I just say lift. I have a lot more to say but I think the Gateway is gonna hit me, and forces me to leave for 3 hr. I'll brb laters
Edit: I told everyone I was skittish, and I get scared off easily. Meridian in the chatroom said verbatim: "Bro what are you talking about" and I felt unsafe, so I left. I dunno if I'll come back now... I have no idea what you guys are doing here / what's going on behind closed doors, especially in a real time chat thats not public... Sorry. If I get an apology maybe I'll come back and post my thoughts, research analysis. I can always play the game on my own. I don't want to deal with drugdealers. If you're gonna have each others's back and not let newcomers in then you're gonna have nothing to do. Sorry.
I just feel like they're reading this, and talking amongst themselfs. Even Gina / Crono's Mom stole my idea of "Maybe you get that ending all the time because of the cat food." I said, I said that. And got no response. I'm not stupid I watch Survivor, and I can pick up on little things even without a facial reaction on the computer. I just feel there's a little bit of stalking involved. If the mods don't want to resolve this issue off-the record... Well, that's fine.
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Edit: I told everyone I was skittish, and I get scared off easily. Meridian in the chatroom said verbatim: "Bro what are you talking about" and I felt unsafe, so I left. I dunno if I'll come back now... I have no idea what you guys are doing here / what's going on behind closed doors, especially in a real time chat thats not public... Sorry. If I get an apology maybe I'll come back and post my thoughts, research analysis. I can always play the game on my own. I don't want to deal with drugdealers. If you're gonna have each others's back and not let newcomers in then you're gonna have nothing to do. Sorry.
I just feel like they're reading this, and talking amongst themselfs. Even Gina / Crono's Mom stole my idea of "Maybe you get that ending all the time because of the cat food." I said, I said that. And got no response. I'm not stupid I watch Survivor, and I can pick up on little things even without a facial reaction on the computer. I just feel there's a little bit of stalking involved. If the mods don't want to resolve this issue off-the record... Well, that's fine.
Man, I thought you didn't care what other people thought and all that? I wouldn't let any of that bother you. I actually chastised Meridian -- although for the record, he was joking with you. There was a troll who shows up every few months with a new user name and he thought you may have been him.
Either way, don't let that ruin your fun. That's a pretty nice group of people for the most part. No need to peace out because of Meridian.
I'll post more later. I'm trying to log into Discord every day since I can't log in here every day. You can always DM there.
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Oh. Well, I don't like being the victim of mistaken identity, I don't like it at all-and I don't like being called " bro" I'm an only child you're not my brother, we're not related we're not that close let's separate the internet and real life. People with siblings don't like me, and I pick up on that but don't call me your bro. Tell Meridian to talk to his own brother cause I'm not him. Am I my brother's keeper? I would be a jellyfish, then. I have don't and dislikes too. It basically boils down to I don't have anyone but me in my life.s Whatever "joke" he was pandering nobody caught. Not even God. Lol He says he checks to see if people are cool, well I'm not his bro. Let's just leave it at that. The word is brother, and I don't have any. Not even in a make-believe friendly way. Lets just leave it at that. I don't care about other people's families. Period. I'm not some stalkerazi online. That's some fratboy stuff, and I don't really like that.
Blecch. I felt touched-on. Well it did bother me, I'm in a good place in life you just reach that age, where you don't really apply for new friendships. I have a lot of friends. I heard his online voice in real-time - it wasn't a joke the context was saying the word Chrono with a silent C and Meridian goes "Bro, what are you talking about" in some rude, cold, neutral basc. unfriendly tone. Yeah I'm not stupid, I'm not at my shit fast-food job where I'm forced to be nice to you. Way to fail, joke. You say "was" past tense - so its gone. How does Meridian know I'm a guy I've only ever posted in here with you? Oh, fun ruined. Sad clown crying on break while kids wonder why they're eating a burger, fries and soda through a straw. You seem to know them for a long time. I was going to. It wasn't just Meridian it was Gina / Crono's Mom too who was trying to steal credit for the cat food. I'm not some putz ballsless. Ok lol? Thank you for trying to mediate. And you didn't address the stalking concern where they read what I post and basc. learn all abt. me. Maybe they even talk under their breath.
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I really, truly think there was no harm intended. But I understand that you are/were upset, and it's completely justified to feel frustrated. It's not even that I wanted to mediate, you're a good dude and it sucks that you felt like it was best that you leave the Discord server.
Anyway, I won't press anything further. I hope events are treating you well other than that. How's the current Chrono Trigger playthrough?
I haven't played much of anything. I put a few hours into Star Ocean: First Departure R and completely forgot how quickly this game flies once you use the time gate on Styx. Even the leveling is really fast; grinding isn't too bad in this one.
It's actually hyping me up to play Star Ocean: Second Story R. It's a slow walk, but I'll get to it, eventually.
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[will reply on laptop]
I noticed @Zeality posted why does he prefer the hyperextended version of his screename?
Uh, I just notice that once a Forum develops some sorta real-time chat, everything starts to get tricky. Its really my fault for going in there since I do like to remain in the Public eye - meaning, my online lifes is really open and honest I've never lied about my identity online before, I've been around and I just think real-time chats people just hook up behind closed-doors and slang marijuana, I mean its just something a normal person would think. If they're not talking to me I think they're, "*Doing the Disney.*" winkwink
I just finished a sesh. I'm gonna skimp out on buying the Lode Sword from Melchior cause you get one in prison anyway and going out of your way to grind is a little un-normal. I'm gonna focus on the Cat food I notice Bekkler always akss for Vicks first? If that helps any? And he picks randomly. I notice the 7 Judges is curious, but no one ever does anything abt. it so I'm gonna do a 7 Judges Faq. I think it has something to do w/the text boxes.
I think Stalking is something a normie would just assume about people, in their neighborhood online, on the Internet, lol. -
Anything, else? I'm just playing Poker in Revelations Series Persona cause its way masturbatory just like EVERYTHING we do in life. Lol And, I'm kinda feenin' to play fft. (Like a ninja moving its foot. The sound it makes?)
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How's the 'rono? Its going good. I'm just doing the cat food, cause I think its a normal thing to do, once you're a Adult and you're oh, shit I need to make sure my cat has enough food before the Great big Adventure! /Ramus
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Are you at the beginning of Trigger or the end? I was thinking you were already done and wrapping this up, but if you're bumming around the Millennial Fair and talking about saving up for the Lode Sword, you may still be early!
Regarding Persona, I actually have only played the first one. And I got horribly addicted to the casino games and tried to get lots of cash so I could buy all the best gear... and ultimately I burned myself out and quit playing it, haha... It definitely wasn't a great game, though. There were some interesting elements, but yeah... it wasn't a great game by any means and even though I want to play through all the games, I don't think I'm interested in going back to try it again.
Once life slows down I'm going to dive back into FF15. I'm hellbent on finishing it. Did I tell you that I also tried the FF15 mobile version? It's surprisingly good and more linear, so there's no open world, but there are still quite a few side quests you can do. I was playing it back in October and have decided to play it alongside FF15, so I can have pretty simple comparisons.
I've been watching this show called Hilda with my kids. It's pretty solid for a kid's cartoon. I sort of want to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender, seeing that I've never watched it. I hear it's really good, and there is a live action Netflix version coming out soon.
Anyways, I'll holla at ya later. Hope you're doing well!
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I'm at the beginning. Yes, I am bumming arnd. the ground level of the Millennial Fair. I'm just trying to get the max. Cat food. And I'm trying to figure out the 7 Judges/Everyone is just stalking you deali-o. So I'm trying to talk to everybody, always buy something cause "No windowshoppers!" and hit up everyone's text boxes. The lady in front of the tent is really hard cause she counts your Silver Points and so does the one guy in the inside-partition by hisself. Anyways Once I get all the cat food, I'll explore the uh-stairbs.
Um. I actually really like Revelations Series Persona. HAHAHAHAHA Its like really personal to me cause at this point in my lifes I just kinda reflect back on my High school years, and it kinda connects. So.................. I just finished the S.e.b.e.c. building and I'm in the other school. I just dumped all my Spell cards and got new Personas. I'm just trying to make it to the Black casino or whatever and do what you were doing like get horribly addicted to the mini-games and upgrd. everyone's gear. If you just do a little bit everyday you won't burn out, ...... I've been at it for years and RPGs have never burned me out......
Yeah, you mentioned FF15-mobile.
I'm still writing for Survivor. I just finished Survivor 2 The Australian Outback last night. I'll probably pick a newer season next now lol.
M-hmm, if you want me to try the Discord again just holla at me, maybe I'll just sit in there, be quiet and not say anything, lol.....
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I'm at the beginning. Yes, I am bumming arnd. the ground level of the Millennial Fair.
If you want to wait until like December 24th, I'll jump in and play with you and that can be the Winter 2023-2024 jam game. I'm still in, although I may have to go even slower than I did with LUNAR 2 - I just literally don't have the time to game like I did a year ago.
M-hmm, if you want me to try the Discord again just holla at me, maybe I'll just sit in there, be quiet and not say anything, lol.....
Up to you, man. I'm not going to push it. I know you said you're not keen on group chats and stuff. If you want to pop back in, feel free, if not, no pressure.
Not too much going on over here - just trying to survive the holidays. Hope you're staying awesome and keeping cool.
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K.
If you want to wait until like December 24th, I'll jump in and play with you and that can be the Winter 2023-2024 jam game. I'm still in, although I may have to go even slower than I did with LUNAR 2 - I just literally don't have the time to game like I did a year ago.
Sure!!! If you want I can just concentrate on getting the max. level Cat food, and not even *BUMP* in- to Marle, on the 2nd ground floor, yet!!! We can totally play Follow the leader and you can lead the way and tell me tidbits on stuff abt. the game that I haven't noticed or picked up yet. Kinda just like what we did with LUNAR 2, but the reverse that was more my game and this's def. more your game!!! I'll be looking forward to it man.
Once I get the Cat food to reach the brim of the bowl in Crono's room, I still have to do the other two Tent of Horrors games, too, as well. So, I'll just keep bumming and waiting for you. *Toot-doo-too!*
Up to you, man. I'm not going to push it. I know you said you're not keen on group chats and stuff. If you want to pop back in, feel free, if not, no pressure.
Not too much going on over here - just trying to survive the holidays. Hope you're staying awesome and keeping cool.
Alright. I'm sure I can pencil in the Compendium into my Discord. I'm way different in chats than I am online, I'm literally like so eager to talk. The people seem a lit'l weird though but I think everyone's a weirdo.
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Right on, dude! Sounds like a plan!
I'm also going to try to squeeze in a little bit of Final Fantasy Dimensions II while we play. Since some of it's plot is what was originally Chrono Break, it makes sense to have the plot actually understood and archived for analysis. I'm going to be doing that, but only playing in like 30-minute increments once a week -- I don't have time to do it all now, so I'll have to chip away at it week by week for the next year or so.
In other news, it's finally the holiday season and I have a few days off. I'm beyond excited. We're doing some traveling to visit family, so I'll be offline entirely for a few days. What are you guys doing for Christmas? Any fun Filipino traditions that would stand out?
We also lost one of our chickens yesterday. We started with 8 chicks about 3.5 years ago, and surprisingly all of them made it to adulthood. We ended up losing some here and there - a few to dogs, one to a hawk attack, etc. We've also added a few as people who have "pet" chickens decide they no longer want them, so we slowly introduce them to our flock.
One of those was a little cream-colored bantam brahma, who my kids named Marigold. She was the smallest chicken by far, and my Americauna and Brahma often pushed her around just due to the norms of chicken pecking order. She eventually got tired of it and decided that she no longer wanted to roost with the other chickens, and she would fly into a nearby tree and perch for the night. She was surprisingly intelligent and affectionate for a chicken, and liked to be pet and hand-fed.
Hawks and even an owl have made a play at her before (due to her size), but they finally won out yesterday. We found a tuft of white feathers near the coop, and it's clear that there was a struggle. We found a few feathers across the field headed to nearby woods, which is where we know both the hawks and owls live. Alas, but it's the natural circle of life.
Our chickens are sort of like pets, so my kids were a little sad. But again, they recognize it as the natural course of things. They still won't let me harvest any of our chickens for meat, though, hahaha! We're going to get some more in the spring and expand our flock. It'll never be as large as yours, but a dozen or so for eggs would be good.
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[Hey, Boo let me just playtest (get all my games in order for the day and have a thought) and I'll repond.]
Hey, Boo sorry I fell asleep. In terms of Final Fantasy I did mention in the Discord that I was playing Final Fantasy VIII. During my teenagehood I kinda went through this phase where I thought "boring" was "normal" and school, work, college was all boring? And other people liked that as well? So I'm kinda re-playing it and it is boring and normal. With the gray and everything. I also kinda mentioned I wanted to print out an actual Triple Triad deck like print out the individual cards and maybe laminate them. LOL
Um, for Christmas my Mom just gets a holiday ham and I kinda eat ham sandwiches for a few weeks at school thereafter. Um, we got a real Christmas tree one time. lol Usually when we go to the pumpkin patch or the parking lot with all the trees we get some really bad batch ones. So my Dad kinda stopped going. And one time the thing you use to hold the tree up screws and everything scratched the hardwood floor and my Mom got so mad-upset. Besides going to church, we don't really do anything "Filipino?" I just kinda hang out online on Christmas day and see what other people are playing/usually whatever RPG? My parents I dunno.
As you know I live on a chicken farm. We haven't lost any chickens lately but, my Dad needed my tweezers to get rid of some sorta bulge/bump in the throat of one of the chickens that was sick? He said he cleaned it off with alcohol but.
Also, they talk about the "pecking order" a lot on Survivor. How literally the weakest one gets pecked by all the other chickens to death. And its a lot like how lifes works? One of the boys said he took care of the goats they're all the way in the back. And um my neighbor-friend isn't really keeping any cows in my field, I dunno, why lol? Usually he does. And he usually comes in with dried grass to feed the goats but he hasn't been? We haven't been filling our fishpond lately usually we put a couple live fish in there and they do their thing and multiply.
I'm playing (Rn:)
- Revelations Series Persona - I made it to the Black Market and the casino items are all fusion items..? Or their weapons that you don't really need cause why wouldn't you use your Personas? I could get some armor if they have any. lol Well, I'm addicted to playing Poker and Big and small, and I notice there's a new Dice Game. And I have some Metal Cards that dropped for Code Breaker I haven't tried out yet.
- Chrono Trigger - I stopped at 104 Cat food, I'm gonna try to earn more Silver Points and do the other 2 games at Bekkler's.
- The Last Guardian - My dog thinks she's a boy. She's kinda of a scared of this game, so I'll put it away for now even though I was so looking forward to it on PlayStation 3.
- Secret of Mana - Just kinda trouncing through it, prouncing arnd. my back yard.
- Yakuza 0 - I beat it already and did a clearfile, now I started New Game + and I'm gonna try to do all the lit'l minigames for the trophys.