Flashfall's recent activity
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall LinkOne of the folks in the gaming community I'm in just started hosting a Vintage Story server and as an enjoyer of Minecraft both without and with extreme amounts of mods, I was intrigued. First...One of the folks in the gaming community I'm in just started hosting a Vintage Story server and as an enjoyer of Minecraft both without and with extreme amounts of mods, I was intrigued.
First off, this definitely does not play like Minecraft, at all. Yeah it's got the same general voxel style and block breaking/placing, but the act of doing basically anything is significantly more methodical. Just started and want to go mining? In Minecraft you can punch a tree, build a crafting table, and make a wood pickaxe within 30 seconds. In Vintage Story, to make your first pickaxe, you have to find pieces of loose copper on the surface or pan for copper pieces from sand or gravel, then once you have enough you need to add those pieces to a crucible that you had to first form from clay then fire in a pit kiln, then you need to heat the crucible to the copper's melting point using sufficiently hot fuel (charcoal most likely, or coal if you get lucky and find it in a ruin), then you need to pick up the 1100 degree celcius crucible with tongs and pour it into the ceramic pickaxe head mold you made (again, formed from clay and fired in a pit kiln), and once that's solidified can you then combine it with a stick to make a copper pickaxe. That whole process, going in completely blind, took me 10 hours from starting, and I had to learn more things just doing that than I did in the entirety of base Minecraft.
Everything in this game is skews heavily towards realism, and as such everything you do is much more deliberate and slower-paced but significantly more rewarding. Simply avoiding freezing and starving to death in your first winter (there are seasons, naturally) is already a huge milestone. It's not just a total realism mod though, there's some eldritch horror stuff mixed in to keep you on your toes with little tears in reality that show up temporarily on the surface that spawn monsters at night, or "temporal storms" that roll through every 2-3 in-game weeks that allow monsters to spawn basically anywhere, even in your well-lit house.
That's just the survival mechanics though, for the folks that prefer a more creative experience you can go hog wild here as you can chisel individual voxels out of blocks, and even mix other materials into the same block, so the potential for artistic expression is limitless. Personally I was never much of an artist so I haven't gone into that (plus still trying to survive winter and all), but some people on their creative worlds have made some truly impressive things.
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Comment on 'The Boys' has ended. What are your thoughts? in ~tv
Flashfall LinkI'm glad that it is finished, not so much because it got bad but more because the showrunners got to end it on their own terms rather than Amazon dragging its lifeless corpse through another few...I'm glad that it is finished, not so much because it got bad but more because the showrunners got to end it on their own terms rather than Amazon dragging its lifeless corpse through another few seasons to milk it dry. Were there a whole bunch of underutilized characters and side plots that just ended abruptly with not much point? Yes. Did it feel like they just cranked up the gratuitous violence and gore even more to compensate? Yes. Would it have turned out better if Eric Kripke didn't feel forced to raise the stakes in the story to make sure this was the last season? Who really knows. But I had a good enough time with it, and I didn't hate the ending, and honestly that's alright.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Flashfall LinkJust finished seeing Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe in IMAX and I'll avoid spoilers since it only just came out in the US, but I'll say that a lot of this movie is...Just finished seeing Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe in IMAX and I'll avoid spoilers since it only just came out in the US, but I'll say that a lot of this movie is definitely a slow burn, even compared to the first one. Animation is top-quality as usual, especially during the fights, and musical composition and song choice is excellent. If you saw the first, then you'll enjoy this one a lot too. If you haven't and also aren't familiar with Hathaway's story from UC, go watch those first otherwise you'll have no clue who or what's going on.
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Comment on Stranger Than Heaven | Cast and story reveal trailer in ~games
Flashfall LinkSnoop Dogg I knew about before, but Ado and Satoshi Fujihara (lead singer of HigeDandism) was a genuine surprise. There's a fair bit of musical star power in this game, huh?Snoop Dogg I knew about before, but Ado and Satoshi Fujihara (lead singer of HigeDandism) was a genuine surprise. There's a fair bit of musical star power in this game, huh?
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Comment on Tildes Survey #5: Pineapple on pizza? (Results) in ~talk
Flashfall LinkI think there's a real case to be made for sweet or sour things to be pizza toppings, pineapple among those. As long as whoever's eating the pizza understands and accepts that there will be...I think there's a real case to be made for sweet or sour things to be pizza toppings, pineapple among those. As long as whoever's eating the pizza understands and accepts that there will be pineapple, that's all good and well.
Personally though I just don't like pineapple that much, pizza or not. I voted yes for freedom of choice but I'll never ask for it myself.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Flashfall Link ParentIf anime about rakugo is what you're into (I haven't seen Akane-banashi so I can't comment on that), definitely try Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu. This story is absolutely loaded with emotions....If anime about rakugo is what you're into (I haven't seen Akane-banashi so I can't comment on that), definitely try Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu. This story is absolutely loaded with emotions. It's heavy but beautiful.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Flashfall LinkUpdates on what I've been watching now that we're halfway through this season: Witch Hat Atelier is really gorgeous to watch, there's always something in each episode that just makes you go "wow"....Updates on what I've been watching now that we're halfway through this season:
Witch Hat Atelier is really gorgeous to watch, there's always something in each episode that just makes you go "wow". Writing so far's been good but nothing amazing yet, still a good amount of lightheartedness and humor with an occasional brief and jarring interruption of darkness but if what I've heard is true, we'll be seeing a lot more of that in the future. Shoutout to that one scene in episode 5.
Yomi no Tsugai follows the shonen formula so tightly that I can't be surprised by anything that happens. It's still good, but I don't think I would have followed this one normally if the FMA author wasn't behind it. Problems of consuming too much anime I guess.
Re:Zero and Iruma-kun Season 4 are both more of what they are, which is good if you want more of that. I do and I'm happy with them, nothing's blown me away but I didn't really expect them to either.
I started MARRIAGETOXIN at the recommendation of a friend and it's good, dumb fun. A very silly plot, well-animated action sequences, cute and awkward romances. Very comfy show.
Also caught up on Jigokuraku Season 2 from the previous season, and it's just as intense as the first. Good if you want something still shonen but more serious in all aspects.
Last but definitely not least, Nippon Sangoku continues to be the best thing I'm watching this season, every single week too. The characters, plot development, and presentation are incredibly compelling and leaves me wanting more at the end of every episode.
Edit: Also, Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe releases in US theatres starting Friday. The first movie, Hathaway's Flash, was on Netflix only, so I'm looking forward to getting the full IMAX experience for this one.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall Link ParentAgainst bosses with large hitboxes, conchcutter can do some disgusting damage. It hits multiple times as it passes through so if you just throw em all while the boss isn't moving for a second you...Got any memorable scenarios you found different things useful?
Against bosses with large hitboxes, conchcutter can do some disgusting damage. It hits multiple times as it passes through so if you just throw em all while the boss isn't moving for a second you can do a ton of burst damage. Flea brew synergizes especially well with Wanderer due to its already high attack speed and improved silk gain, so you can basically trade blows with some bosses and heal the damage back.
Magnetite dice might feel like a really low chance for what it does but it's still one of the best blue tools for combat, and any chance to ignore damage is valuable. Weighted belt is actually big for increasing Wanderer crest DPS since you don't need to waste time moving back into range, while spamming attacks.
For yellow tools, injector band + multibinder is the safest combo. Fractured mask is also very popular for survival but you only get value from it if you take a lethal hit. Longclaw's popular with Wanderer since it mitigates some of the range disadvantage. Pollip pouch is a must if you want free extra damage from red tools, particularly with threepin or cogfly. If you are going for more direct red tool damage instead, Quick Sling doubles the amount you throw. Druid's Eyes (the upgraded version) is less popular since you need to get hit to get value from it and it doesn't give a lot of silk back but it's not bad if you're using the damage trading tactic. And this last one is a very personal choice, but I quite like snitch pick since you can get a bit of silk from clawlining an enemy, and I like to be aggressive with clawline.
I didn't play with flea brew much because it costs something to use and is even more of an annoyance to refill
I take it you haven't gotten to the end of the flea caravan questline? You should, the reward is well worth it in multiple ways. Also if you hit Kratt while he's peeping on you in the spa, he stops charging you to use it.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall Link ParentSilksong's crests and tools open up a lot of flexibility between spell usage and healing so you might find yourself with more silk to spare for spells by changing that up a bit. I know there's one...I like the system of hitting enemies to get mana then using that mana to heal, but unfortunately this means I almost never used my mana for spells because healing was too valuable.
Silksong's crests and tools open up a lot of flexibility between spell usage and healing so you might find yourself with more silk to spare for spells by changing that up a bit. I know there's one tool that increases the base amount you regenerate, which when combined with a few spool upgrades gives you enough to cast one spell without needing to hit anything.
Most of the benches require money (rosaries) to unlock
There were a good amount of benches that cost Geo to unlock as well. Rosaries are a lot easier to come by than Geo, at least.
There is one area that has toll benches (lower cost to open but require payment on each use), and the concept feels much worse in my brain than it is in practice
That's supposed to feel shitty, that whole area is an awful place and the devs want you to feel shitty there. But at least it's still not as shitty as that other place.
Retying certain boss fights in "memories" is so frustrating. The full sequence of unskippable (non-?) cutscenes - where your character takes 5 seconds to wake up, then you have to hold Y + down for 5 seconds, then wait another 5 seconds to enter the memory, then 5 more seconds to wake up inside the memory, then sometimes a bit of minimal platforming or clearing a few bozo enemies to get back to the bossfight - is completely disrespectful of the player's time.
Oh yeah I hated that so much too, that didn't feel like it added anything of value.
It also only has 1 slot for tools so I played with them that much less.
I used Wanderer's crest for basically the rest of the game after unlocking it pretty early on but I still messed around with a lot of the usable tools, you don't need Architect crest to get good value out of them.
Right now I'm at the end of Act 3. I haven't been able to beat the main boss yet. I checked reddit for tips and they suggested using basically my exact build, so I'm on the right track but just need to git gud I suppose.
Took me more tries than NK Grimm did and I had to sleep on it but once you do git gud it feels like a great fight. Also, poison cogflies. Game is hard enough, cheese is a valid tactic.
Also kinda stuck on the Hunter's March memory boss (Karmelita) right now
Have you tried chugging flea brew and just going apeshit (and healing while she's staggered)? That's what worked for me.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall Link ParentThat may be by design, the overarching plot is your character being suddenly dropped into this "Court" in a position of far too much responsibility and your primary motivation is to figure out...turned off by the story/dialogue just cause I felt thrown in the deep end.
That may be by design, the overarching plot is your character being suddenly dropped into this "Court" in a position of far too much responsibility and your primary motivation is to figure out what the hell's going on and how to get out. The game creator wants you to be initially confused and overwhelmed like your character, but then also take it in stride and figure it out as you go.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall Link Parent"Gaol" is a dated British spelling of "jail", so maybe they intentionally used that version of the word to better fit the setting? Unless they only did it sometimes, in which case that would most...I also notice a bit of sloppiness in the translation, like spelling "jail" as "gaol"
"Gaol" is a dated British spelling of "jail", so maybe they intentionally used that version of the word to better fit the setting? Unless they only did it sometimes, in which case that would most likely be sloppiness.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall LinkSkillUp mentioned Titanium Court in the latest episode of the Friends Per Second podcast and it totally sounded like something I would normally never touch but it also sounded so absurdly indie...SkillUp mentioned Titanium Court in the latest episode of the Friends Per Second podcast and it totally sounded like something I would normally never touch but it also sounded so absurdly indie that I figured I'd try it anyway.
So anyway, this game is absurdly indie haha. The core game loop itself starts as a match 3 that shapes the battlefield for the second part, which is a sort of auto-battler where you summon units and use spells that consume resources you get from the match 3 section (matching things gets you that resource). Your castle, the eponymous "Titanium Court", is one such square in the grid, and there are various enemy forts or other threats that can appear and also be matched away, with the rest being what you need to deal with during the auto-battle phase. There's also shops and chests that can appear on the grid during the match 3 and you can access them after the match 3 phase is done and prior to the auto-battle phase. There's a lot more nuance to it than I can describe here so I'll just say it's very unique without being too complicated to pick up quickly.
The storytelling is uh, I really can't describe it in words other than "very, very indie". I have no idea who the developer's target audience for this game was other than people looking for an indie game experience. It's not unpleasant or crude, but frequently eccentric. It's got humor, but in a weird way? Words really fail me here. Wouldn't say it's a must-try but if you're looking for a unique indie experience it'll definitely give you that.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall LinkI've put a dozen hours into the latest hyped co-op horde shooter, Far Far West, and so far it's been a fun time with a friend. It's got the first person responsive arcade movement and shooting of...I've put a dozen hours into the latest hyped co-op horde shooter, Far Far West, and so far it's been a fun time with a friend. It's got the first person responsive arcade movement and shooting of Deep Rock Galactic and the open map and mission design of Helldivers 2 where you can wander and complete side objectives as you please, with the only fixed order requirements being a main objective, boss fight, and extraction fight. The art style is a simple, cartoony 3D one that's not painful to look at, and the theme of robot cowboys fighting a skeleton army's unique and humorous enough to stand out a bit.
There's a decent spread of primary and secondary weapons that all feel very different, as well as a good selection of spells that have some interesting synergies with each other. There's a good 6 maps already available and they all look distinct enough, though the maps are fixed and only the objectives are randomized each time. Build variety, aside from choosing weapons and spells, comes from Jokers, which are modifiers for your character and weapons. Each can equip their own jokers with a slot limit, with higher rarity jokers taking up more slots. Jokers can also be found or earned mid-mission, though those only last for the mission duration.
For an early access launch, there's a good amount of fun to be had for 20 bucks. Definitely better with friends as these kinds of games tend to be but good enough to stand on its own solo.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Flashfall LinkI've been following a few shows this season, sequels like Re: Zero and Iruma-kun season 4, and some hyped manga adaptations like Yomi no Tsugai and Witch Hat Atelier. So far though, the one I'm...I've been following a few shows this season, sequels like Re: Zero and Iruma-kun season 4, and some hyped manga adaptations like Yomi no Tsugai and Witch Hat Atelier.
So far though, the one I'm enjoying the most is Nippon Sangoku, a tale of 3 warring nations that formed after the societal collapse of Japan and one young man's journey to unite them. The art is bold, high contrast, and generally beautiful to look at. The important characters all stand out a lot by their personalities alone, though distinct character design is not lacking at all either. The storytelling is framed like a retelling of historical events, and the animation from small details to action scenes is high-quality. There are scenes with bloodshed and death, but if you're alright with that then I highly recommend giving this one a try.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall LinkPlayed a lot of Windrose with a friend and we've more or less finished all the exploration and mission content currently available. All in all, a really solid survival crafting game with a bit of...Played a lot of Windrose with a friend and we've more or less finished all the exploration and mission content currently available. All in all, a really solid survival crafting game with a bit of a learning curve for both ground and naval combat, but plenty of great quality of life features out of the box, and a decent execution on the pirate theme. Took us 60-70 hours to clear all the missions, max out our preferred equipment, build the current biggest ships, and explore all the points of interest, and that's including the tedious resource gathering, so it's a good value for 30 bucks. We're not avid builders so we'll just wait until more content is released to pick it up again, but the building system and available building pieces are quite good and varied, and if you visit the subreddit (r/crosswind, that's the game's old name), you can admire other players' Spanish-style mansions, sprawling pirate coves, or minimally functional leaf shacks.
Also really briefly started a new endless mode run on Frostpunk 2 to hunt down a few more achievements and by the "end" of that one I managed to have a workforce 17 times higher than my population. Love how absurdly imbalanced Fractured Utopias can get, very much looking forward to Breach of Trust in June.
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Comment on How are we all feeling about piracy these days? in ~movies
Flashfall LinkIn the words of Gabe Newell, "piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem". I pay for convenience and a good user experience, and if I'm not getting that then I don't pay....In the words of Gabe Newell, "piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem". I pay for convenience and a good user experience, and if I'm not getting that then I don't pay.
I don't pirate ANY games anymore because Steam is just incredibly convenient (plus I like multiplayer co-op stuff and that just doesn't work with pirated copies). It also helps that I know the publisher/devs get a sizeable cut of my purchase there so I'm actually supporting them.
For shows and movies, the only streaming service I use is Prime Video but that's only because it comes with Prime, and even then I still need to put up with ads. Anything on any other streaming platform that I really want to see can usually be found on a free streaming site within a few minutes (though you have to be careful not to click on ads with those).
For anime, the only major anime streaming platform for the West is Crunchyroll, but their selection's limited and the streaming quality's mid and the subtitles aren't always good and very little if any of the money they make goes back to the anime studios. Plus, they've been working with Japanese publishers to very aggressively crack down on unaffiliated anime streaming sites, which is understandable from a business perspective but still rankles the Western anime community. After the last streaming site I was using went down last month I've just decided to torrent all the things I want to watch, and I've set it up so that I automatically download the latest episodes as they're uploaded so it's still pretty convenient. I'll support anime studios more directly by buying merch for shows I'm really into, but Crunchyroll isn't getting shit from me.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall LinkSo I finally finished the story of Death Stranding 2 and yeah I still stand by the writing itself being very B-movie quality but it doesn't even matter because it's VERY self aware of that and the...So I finally finished the story of Death Stranding 2 and yeah I still stand by the writing itself being very B-movie quality but it doesn't even matter because it's VERY self aware of that and the visual spectacle that goes along with it is phenomenal. There were definitely some better executed sequences with real emotional impact at least, and the rather convoluted plot actually ties itself up quite neatly. Fair warning though, the last few story missions that make up the climax and ending have A LOT of cutscenes and will take a couple hours to get through. You'll have moments in between to save if you need to come back to it later, at least. Won't spoil anything in particular, but you'll definitely enjoy them more if you're a fan of Kojima's previous games, he knows what we like.
I'm in the post-endgame now where I'm free to wander as I please so naturally I'm gonna max out connections with all of the delivery locations for completion's sake, maybe donate building materials and stuff to other players now that I've finished restoring the entire highway. Keep on keeping on.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall LinkStill playing Death Stranding 2, my intense need to build every stretch of highway or monorail as I connect more parts of the map is really ruining the pacing of the story for myself, haha. Those...Still playing Death Stranding 2, my intense need to build every stretch of highway or monorail as I connect more parts of the map is really ruining the pacing of the story for myself, haha. Those special moments during story orders where the music kicks in are also notably less impactful when you're in a vehicle, so I've decided to avoid using vehicles for story orders altogether to maximize the vibes. Writing's still mediocre, but the ideas and execution are top-notch.
Also hopped back on Warhammer 40,000: Darktide to try out the new Expeditions game mode, and learn the Arbites class while I'm at it. The new game mode itself is different, it plays like a weird version of Deep Rock Galactic where you're meant to get in, get as much stuff as you're comfortable with, and get out while fending off a horde, and you're actively trying to avoid enemies due to limited supplies and a time limit. It's not bad, but I don't really want to play it more than the regular game mode. Arbites on the other hand has been a joy to play with. The durability of the class is incredible, the unique weapons feel great, all of the abilities feel strong, and the dog is actually really helpful. Plus, the voice I picked for mine is such an asshole and it makes for hilarious bits of dialogue mid-mission.
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Comment on I'm glad Hideo Kojima went into games instead of directing movies in ~games
Flashfall Link ParentIn terms of understanding what's going on the cutscenes are pretty vital, I'm pretty sure Kojima is self-aware on how unintuitive or nonsensical many of his ideas and plot points are so he just...In terms of understanding what's going on the cutscenes are pretty vital, I'm pretty sure Kojima is self-aware on how unintuitive or nonsensical many of his ideas and plot points are so he just chooses to have people explain it to the main character rather than leave it to the player to figure it out. Not all cutscenes are just boring exposition dumps, sometimes there are just very cool visuals going on with little explanation, and I'm still only in the first third of the game so maybe it gets better once the main character's finally up to speed on who's who and what's what.
Finished a full rewatch of the first season of The Ancient Magus' Bride, and it's actually kind of incredible how this manga/anime just gets magic right, as in it actually feels like the world is magical, rather than magic just being an alternate form of science or technology, or some kind of bloodline superpower. It really is the closest thing to "what if all those folk stories were real?", with no over-the-top fights or flashy but trite demonstrations, just a very natural beauty and terror, and a very deep respect of old traditions. It still manages to strike a great balance between focusing on the characters and the magical phenomena, whereas something like Mushishi leans a lot more into the folk creatures themselves, and the more shonen magic anime are almost entirely about the characters and the magic itself is just there to highlight their character traits.
Also going to gush about Nippon Sangoku again because episode 8 was somehow the best yet. Damn this show's good.