the_dog_days

And with that attitude you'll never know.

Teach me, sensei.

Now playing HuniePop 2. The stamina meter is such a drag. Otherwise it's a good palette cleanser after a giant rpg. Also downloaded Grim Dawn again 'cause someone uploaded a pic (you knew what you were doing).

Just finished The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 4. Man, this a long time in coming. CS4 isn't just the conclusion to the Cold Steel subseries, but also the end of the main story of Trails in the western half of Zemuria (the name of the continent on which the games take place). (While Trails of Reverie is supposed to be the last Trails game on the western side of Zemuria, from what I understand Reverie is a denouement while CS4 is the conclusion to the primary conflict.) I've said about a million times, but the Trails games are the Marvel Cinematic Universe of video game series. Each games ties into the overall story and forwards parts of each of the other plot lines. It's crazy to think that this all began back in 2004 when the first Trails in the Sky game dropped in Japan. Zemuria has changed a lot since then in the game world and in the technology used to create it. It's hard to go into detail about CS4 without diving headfirst into spoilers, so instead here's a list of things it did well and a list of things it didn't do so well. The Good Wrapping Up Minor Plot Threads--There were very minor NPC plot threads that I haven't seen in so long I forgot they even existed that the writers still went out of their way to conclude. Some of them going as far back as Sky 1. Most of these were satisfying and you could tell the devs put a lot of thought into them, including in some lingering questions that fans had long since given up on expecting any real conclusion on. Combat Evolution Over the Series--Trails games have turn based combat but they've always had hidden or semi-hidden mechanics that if you dig into can really break the game. Over time they ditched the hidden mechanics to make combat more transparent and consequently more engaging. If you don't like turn based or if you hate crazy itemization that can break the game, you won't like Trails. I happen to like both of those things. Epic Final Boss--They really build up the final boss in a similar fashion to Final Fantasy games. They managed to capture the hype and drive the emotions up along the way, giving the feelings of a truly enormous stakes are on the line. In fact, if anything they might want to tone it down a bit in the next subseries. Pom! Pom! Party!--Falcom loves their mini-games. They added a PvP (you versus the AI) connect three with some interesting quirks that I sunk more time into than I care to admit. Suffice to say, my play time could've been noticeably shorter if this min-game hadn't hooked me. The Ending Slides--I teared up. Can't go into details. Spoilers. The Bad Bonding Events--I wasn't a fan of the Persona-like elements the CS games adopted in the beginning and if anything CS4 vindicated me. When every interaction with the opposite sex is romantic and you have four games, it brings new meaning to the term, "slow burn romance". Forgetting the fact that some of those romance options weren't appropriate (usually in the age difference), it actually got tiresome going through the female half of Class VII's bonding events. I frequently found myself at the start of a new day playing Pom! Pom! Party! rather than sit through another awkward confession scene. Bonding Events (2)--Some of the bonding events should've been playable companion quests instead of having to passively read through them. In fact there are two off the top of my head that basically were companion quests but rather than me being able to solve the mystery or fight the monster I read through how Rean (the main character) solved the mystery or fought the monster. This was frustrating and even knowing that Falcom is an independent AA studio, it felt cheap. Lack of VO--I'm pretty sure that CS4 had the exact same amount of voiced over lines as CS3, which had the same amount as CS2, however CS4 has far more dialog so keeping the same amount of voiced lines means you hear them less often. And it's noticeable. Lengthy Cutscenes--There were at least three cutscenes that were at least an hour long apiece. That's three hours of game that I sat passively reading dialog with no pause for actual gameplay. Not even a few rounds of Pom! Pom! Party! Given that you can usually tell in what direction each of these huge cutscenes was going, at the halfway point those scenes in particular felt like bloat to pad playtime. Story Pacing--CS4 mirrors CS2 in many ways. Both change so much from act to act it feels less like playing one game rather than playing three or four games duct taped together. The pacing feels all over the place because of it. The Final Plot Twist--While I didn't know what the twist was going into this game, I was aware that it was controversial when the game first launched in Japan. CS4 is to date the only Trails game to receive mixed reviews from fans. Having now played through it, I'm on the side of those who found it disappointing. It doesn't ruin the game or the story but it is still disappointing. Conclusion: CS4 is a very flawed, but very good game. To date I would say I haven't played a bad Trails game but I would rate CS4 right at the bottom of a Trails favorites list because of it's many difficult to overlook flaws. But yeah, I'll probably still new game plus it.

Panthers are the best bad team right now. Dallas is any good this year they should whip up on them.

There actually aren't that many. Falcom (the game studio) have done limited runs on Mishy plushies for for special box editions of their games.

I've been playing Trails of Cold Steel 4. Got a lot of screen shots but 99% of them can't show 'cause of spoilers, so here's a compilation of people dunking on Mishy that has no plot relevance. I even get in on the action, beating the snot out of Mishy in a card game right in front of his fans.

I was hoping to see another 30/30 season. Usually you only get to see one of those once a lifetime but I thought if anyone could do it twice it'd be Winston.

How dare you! Week one told us definitely that the Texans are the best team in the NFL.

Biggest surprise so far: Mac Jones played as nearly perfect as can be expected and the Pats still lost at home to the Dolphins.

He deserves it, the monster.

Five.

So do I. The animated ones I find particularly distracting.

This is the first time I've ever seen anyone call child workers greedy.

Been playing for awhile with just short of a full party. Aside from a couple of quibbles and bugs, I'm loving it. Skipped on Pathfinder 'cause I'm sure both games are a year plus away from their real release.

You are a PALADIN! You bring as much attention to sharpening your blade as to the tempering of your character. Always ready to help those in need, you strive to become a better person with every step you make.

Low int half ogre in Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura will get you insulted two ways. It's a good RP build to explain a decent into evil.

Too bad only one group gets stinger missiles from Uncle Joe.

It's a good game but still clearly in early access. There are some design decisions I wouldn't make (like limiting classes by race and equipment by class) but so far there's been nothing terrible that the devs haven't already put on the list of things to improve.

King Arthur only really settled down after Merlin beat some reverie into him.

On topic, Black Geyser is now in early access.

It's a vast open world filled with fully realized NPCs Wukong can send d-pics to.

Just make better ones next time.

Yakuza 8: Like a Bubble is lookin' great.