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Post by Youngster Joey on Jun 3, 2019 17:42:31 GMT -5
I think it's just a function of the fact that there are 8 million people here. Bound to have a few odd ducks that way...
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Post by Youngster Joey on Jun 3, 2019 21:54:55 GMT -5
You can't make this sh*t up, really. Visiting the royal family and proceeds to insult one of them in an interview literally a day before going. How socially obtuse can this dude be? Kind of cracks me up.
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Post by Friendly Person :) on Jun 3, 2019 23:16:12 GMT -5
Finished Wind-Up Bird again tonight (606 pages in 8 days -- not bad). It's an interesting bit of self-assessment, given that it was both the first Murakami book I've read as well as the book I attribute as the catalyst for my shift toward more serious literature. When I finished it the first time, I felt utterly lost. It seemed a book of many mysteries, and I felt I understood maybe 20% of it. So of course, re-reading it would be a curious metric.
Pleasantly, I definitely understand what Murakami was doing this time around. The book is about many things, but at its heart its about how you can't simply pretend the past didn't happen: the past shapes you whether you like it or not -- what really matters is how you determine to shape the present. Hence all the connections to Manchuria, which seem so obvious now, but which seemed so confusingly disconnected the first time through.
That's not to say I understood everything. I'm still not sure what I'm supposed to make about how characters A and B are clearly mirrors of characters C and D. It's definitely a book with many mysteries still left to work out. However I count that as more of a positive. I clearly still greatly enjoy the story, but it's nice to know that each time I read it things will come more and more into focus.
Though I must say I wish now more than ever that Knopf would seriously consider an unabridged release. I can only hope my e-mail convinces the right person (pro tip: it won't).
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Post by Youngster Joey on Jun 5, 2019 23:11:02 GMT -5
Meh. So my coworker lent me the first 3 manga of Danganronpa, since I played the first trial and decided it was not for me. Having read 3 out of 4 of the manga, my main takeaway is not man, I'm glad I'm experiencing Danganronpa (the reaction I think my coworker was hoping I'd have), but rather, man, I'm glad I didn't bother continuing with the game. I definitely wouldn't have had fun. It's OK in manga form since it takes out the point-and-click searching I hated about the game and just focuses on the plot, but... ultimately, I just don't like it? The turns are too abrupt for the plot to be interesting to me. Maybe I'm just obtuse, but I've rarely thought to myself, "Oh, XYZ definitely happened" in advance. They explain what happened, and it's oh, ok, I guess that makes sense, but it's also kinda farfetched? e.g., one of the characters is a trap Not unheard of in Japanese media, but it's not going to be the first or fifth or even twentieth thing my mind is going to jump to. I didn't enjoy Phoenix Wright for similar reasons (also see above about not liking point-and-clicking searching for evidence). I want to be able to deduce a reasonable outcome, not an absurd one. The characters are annoying as all get out, too. I think the game is sort of making a point with the stereotypes, rather than being a generic anime game with poorly written cookie cutter characters... but that doesn't make them any less annoying or unenjoyable as characters. I'm not sad when they die. It's more like good riddance.
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Derman
Oracle Knight
I still don't have a knife tag on my golden birth knife
Posts: 194
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Post by Derman on Jun 6, 2019 16:43:58 GMT -5
I've always wondered if Danganronpa is actually good in a good way, or in a weeb way. Basically the characters seemed like stereotypes and the plot sounded fairly ridiculous. Some people say it's the best VN, or best PSP game, so I figured there must be something great about it that I just didn't see because I haven't played it. If the manga is not very good, can't imagine a VN being any better. I'm not that interested in the game mechanics to push through the plot/characters.
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Post by Youngster Joey on Jun 6, 2019 20:39:10 GMT -5
It's hard to say since I think manga adaptations usually don't do justice to the original material (they're usually supplemental and expected to be read by existing fans, in my experience), but the limited amount of time I spent playing the game felt like I was playing an anime. Aside from not liking the gameplay style, I was pretty turned off by that. I don't like anime anime. I actively kinda dislike it; it's annoying and boring.
Danganronpa's not actually a dark game, either, despite people dying. There's so much absurd levity, and the characters such two-dimensional caricatures, that the deaths don't really have any impact. 999 is somewhat similar in concept, but executes it much better, I think. The reactions of characters to deaths was much more reasonable, as well.
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Post by Friendly Person :) on Jun 7, 2019 5:11:49 GMT -5
I feel like I've said this many times -- I'm self-conscious about it because it's a, "I knew about it BEFORE it was cool" -- but in all honesty my friend did send me an English-patched PSP iso of the original game long before an official English translation ever existed. he told me how it was one of the best VNs he had ever played, and while even today my total VN completion count sits at 2, he still badgered me into giving it a shot.
Suffice to say, I was turned off from the first. Hyper-exaggeration is the point, and it's a point that never sits well with me. I didn't enjoy Gurren Lagann because of the over-the-top style, I enjoyed it because Simon's maturity is actually really well handled. It's strange, because when I think about my favourite fiction, I tend to be more biased towards lower-key things. Think more Murakami or Pun-pun, but I have trouble believing that this is really the best way of articulating it. Regardless, I prefer subtlety to overtness, and there wasn't much subtle about Dangan.
Long story short: me no likey.
It's a strange feeling when you finish a guilty pleasure show/movie/book. It fills you with happy feelings, and you want to share it with someone... then you realise that it's either not very good, or that it's just not going to really have much to offer people who don't fall into that specific niche.
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Derman
Oracle Knight
I still don't have a knife tag on my golden birth knife
Posts: 194
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Post by Derman on Jun 7, 2019 9:54:11 GMT -5
It has pretty great comments/documentation, like this one part from Dox/Build.txt:
Burning a Build This is the f**ker, cos the burning software is flakey!! Follow precisely, or you will hang the burner PC (MY PC!!) 1. copy the ISO cdbuild to the burn machine 2. open the burner draw, and put a blank CD in (DO NOT CLOSE IT AT ALL) 3. double click on the ISO file, this will open up EZCD burning software 4. Set the number of copies to ONE MORE than you need. 5. ensure TRACK AT ONCE is checked. 6. click record. 7. It will say the is no Cd in the drive, click retry
8. When the burn is done, place another blank CD in the drawer but DO NOT CLOSE IT 9. Click on retry, and repeat from 8 until all copies needed are burnt.
10. DO NOT CLOSE THE DRAWER YET 11 Cancel the burn box, and close down EZCD 12 Wait a bit, then close the drawer.
13 You now have builds on CD, managed to not crash my PC AND worked around some very nasty Win2k Bugs Well done!!
or from source/game/convo.cpp
// yes.. i know it's gay but it works..
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Post by Friendly Person :) on Jun 7, 2019 19:20:53 GMT -5
HOLY SH*T THEY ANNOUNCED A NEW TALES THING OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD Oh wait, I don't care. Nevermind, continue.
-edit- I guess 'Tales of Arise' failed to arise my interest.
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Post by Youngster Joey on Jun 8, 2019 2:10:03 GMT -5
you're pretty on top of the news! and meanwhile here i would have blundered through life clueless for the next few months
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Post by Friendly Person :) on Jun 8, 2019 4:13:55 GMT -5
I pretty much always have Siliconera/Gematsu tabs open because I multi-task like a motherf*cker. I don't really care, but what else am I gonna do while I'm talking to people online?
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Post by Youngster Joey on Jun 9, 2019 12:19:11 GMT -5
Why did my friend remind me that Slay the Spire is now out on Switch
My life is doomed, over, wasted
Friends don't let friends take crack
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Post by Youngster Joey on Jun 10, 2019 23:00:16 GMT -5
yes, this is crack.
At least on my computer, I get distracted by things--email, instant messages, a quick dalliance with Google search over something random--and don't play for 5 hours straight like I do on the Switch :-(
Part of me feels guilty playing guilty playing video games for so long since it's not terribly productive vs. other things I could be doing, but chaining combos of cards makes me feel so clever
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Derman
Oracle Knight
I still don't have a knife tag on my golden birth knife
Posts: 194
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Post by Derman on Jun 11, 2019 14:20:56 GMT -5
Seiken Densetsu 3 remake o boy! Also, since grain insisted, I'm going to say something about Tales of Arise. To me it looks... unreal. Dunno, maybe they know what they are doing, maybe it'll be decent. Or maybe not, my excitement is basically nonexistent at the moment. I saw the Cyberpunk trailer, and the Keanu Reeves reddit bait. I don't think I've watched a single film with Keanu Reeves in it, so I don't know what the deal is with that guy, but apparently internet loves him. It seems like an easy way to get the reddit mob to your side by including their favorite actor in the game. His short speech at the stage was pretty awkward, but people seemed to be really hyped. I've been checking out the list of announced games occasionally. Besides Seiken Densetsu, we got a new Desperados game, Baldur's Gate 3, Banjo-Kazooie in smash and a Commander Keen (mobile) game. A lot of games from my childhood are coming back.
I forgot Slay the Spire was coming out on switch. Not that it matters, my is returning his switch for warranty repair once again, so I wouldn't be able to play it on it for a while anyway.
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Post by Friendly Person :) on Jun 12, 2019 3:46:08 GMT -5
I did end up getting the Collection of Mana. I spent a good 2 hours with both FFA and SD3 (now called Trials of Mana). Then I took it to a friend's house and we played 2 more hours of co-op ToM. What really strikes me about these older games is the pacing. 2 hours into Tales of Berseria and you've maybe gotten off of tutorial island. 2 hours into ToM and you've:
Watched someone die met a farie met your first party member met the mana sage fought boss 1 and gotten the first essence got captured and escaped went through a tunnel, fought some robots, destroyed a bridge met some dwarves, gone through a dungeon fought boss 2 and gotten Gnome
Very productive two hours!
Of course the story is nowhere near as involved as games are now, but I feel like nowadays we've gone a little too hard the opposite direction. I'm tired of watching a scene, then watching a scene reacting to the scene we just watched, then watching the scene where we plan what to do next because of the thing that happened in the first scene, and then if its Tales watching a skit about the scene...
The story/gameplay loop just feels really screwy in modern JRPGs. Usually I'm either dying for everyone to shut up and let me get to the game, or dying for the something to happen to break up the same boring environments and combat. Wait... why do I like these games again?
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