Raistlin's recent activity
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Comment on Tesla to wind down Cybertruck production in Texas next year in ~transport
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Comment on JLPT N5, here i come! Ehm... any suggestions for me? in ~humanities.languages
Raistlin Link ParentThings that really worked for me: Ringotan: A kanji writing app, but starts with hiragana and katakana. It was instrumental in helping me learn the basics of the script. Once you learn the kana,...Things that really worked for me:
Ringotan: A kanji writing app, but starts with hiragana and katakana. It was instrumental in helping me learn the basics of the script. Once you learn the kana, your path opens up.
Renshuu: My favourite app in terms of learning vocabulary and grammar. Especially in combination with ringotan, it's the only one where I've been able to consistently keep at it, and feel like I'm progressing.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Raistlin LinkJust finished Fire Emblem 4: Genealogy of the Holy War. I started the series with Fates, then played the older Awakening, then Echoes. Loved 3H, and eventually got Engage, which I didn't really...Just finished Fire Emblem 4: Genealogy of the Holy War.
I started the series with Fates, then played the older Awakening, then Echoes. Loved 3H, and eventually got Engage, which I didn't really like. Fortune's Weave came out, and I don't have a Switch 2, and it also didn't really look interesting to me. So I started playing other FEs.
I've beaten FE7 Blazing Blade and FE8 Sacred Stones, which I enjoyed. I started FE4 with low expectations. It's a community favourite, but it's an old Super Famicom title that I have no nostalgia for, how good could it really be?
Well, it's now amongst my favourite entries in the franchise. I can't quite say yet if it's my favourite. It feels like my favourite, but recency bias is a thing.
It has, by far, the best narrative of any Fire Emblem. The world is extremely fleshed out, socially, politically and also just in the game. You can overlay every map on top of each other and just get the continent of Jugdral in its entirety.
I feel it's pretty impossible to be in FE and not know what the twist of this game is, but even knowing that, it was marvelously executed. I don't want to get into it in case someone hasn't played the game, but the chapter with the twist is a master class in environmental story telling, ludonarrative consonance, sound design, timing. Even the way the chapter closes is brilliant, the way it almost makes a mockery of traditional ending cards in Fire Emblem.
Controversially I also love the gameplay, but with an asterisk. If you've ever seen the maps for this game and thought to yourself that you're not going to put yourself through 2 hours of a single gigantic Fire Emblem chapter, one thing that helped me was to not play this like a Fire Emblem game and to play like a digital D&D-ish boardgame where I'm keeping track of all the PCs. That shift allows everything to click for me, from inventory management to gold management to travel. Of course Dew isn't just giving an item to another soldier; it's his loot.
I'm obsessed with the substitute units (even though I haven't used them yet) because using them transforms both your gameplay (now you're the mooks trying to find a way to defeat demigods) and theming.
God, there's so much I want to say that involves spoilers. I'm in the middle of a second playthrough because I missed some events that I very much want to see. I did not expect this game to grab me in the way it did.
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Comment on Europa Universalis V: Across The Pillars | Release trailer in ~games
Raistlin Link ParentSeriously, what happened with this game? The devs still seem to be floundering here.Seriously, what happened with this game? The devs still seem to be floundering here.
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Comment on Proton’s CEO cancels AI ‘re-interviews’ in ~tech
Raistlin LinkToo late for me, I'm already mid migration onto a different service. This isn't the only reason (they've been weird about crypto and AI for a while now), but this was the last straw for me.Too late for me, I'm already mid migration onto a different service. This isn't the only reason (they've been weird about crypto and AI for a while now), but this was the last straw for me.
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Comment on Reddit will require you to be logged in in ~tech
Raistlin Link ParentI think you're right, but... they're not. Everyone around me knows what those three things are. I don't think there's a single non tech person at the office I work at who knows what Reddit is. I'm...I think you're right, but... they're not. Everyone around me knows what those three things are. I don't think there's a single non tech person at the office I work at who knows what Reddit is.
I'm really curious as to how this will go!
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Comment on Reddit will require you to be logged in in ~tech
Raistlin Link ParentYeah, I don't get this one. Everything else has been shitty for people, but good for the next quarter. This one seems like... a very bad idea? Won't that just kill traffic?Yeah, I don't get this one. Everything else has been shitty for people, but good for the next quarter. This one seems like... a very bad idea? Won't that just kill traffic?
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Comment on Reddit will require you to be logged in in ~tech
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Comment on Proton to ‘re-interview’ staff about AI to see who gets to keep their job in ~tech
Raistlin Link ParentI decided on your rec. It's also recommended by privacy guides, and they pride themselves on being eco friendly, which I like. I'm currently on a trial period, but very likely to buy a basic plan...I decided on your rec. It's also recommended by privacy guides, and they pride themselves on being eco friendly, which I like.
I'm currently on a trial period, but very likely to buy a basic plan if everything works well.
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Comment on Proton to ‘re-interview’ staff about AI to see who gets to keep their job in ~tech
Raistlin LinkGod, I don't want to change all my shit again... What are some good alternatives to proton mail and VPN?God, I don't want to change all my shit again...
What are some good alternatives to proton mail and VPN?
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Raistlin Link ParentWhat'd you think of the characters in Phoenix Wright so far?What'd you think of the characters in Phoenix Wright so far?
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Raistlin LinkAlright, folks, I've done it, I've beaten Xenosaga Episode III. Aside from Xenosaga for the DS (I eagerly await the Vector translation for that game), I've now beaten all Xenosaga games. Spent the...Alright, folks, I've done it, I've beaten Xenosaga Episode III. Aside from Xenosaga for the DS (I eagerly await the Vector translation for that game), I've now beaten all Xenosaga games. Spent the next two days not playing anything, just thinking about it. FULL SPOILERS AHEAD.
I had heard before that 3 was the best game in terms of gameplay and art style, and while I agree with that, it's also the fame where you see the most cut content, which is sad. T-elos is barely used. You don't even see the facea of the two midgame bosses you end up killing. Pellegri doesn't get very much. Doctus disappears from the story. There were obviously so many more plans that had to be dropped in favour of that boss gauntlet at the end.
I ended up really really liking that Allen confession scene I had been dreading since episode 1. I liked how he doesn't really 'win' Shion over so much as snaps her out of Kevin's grasp.
I really like the character of Shion, and how she gets a bit worse before she gets better. I don't really see in the community how Kevin wasn't just being a dick. He groomed her into a relationship from the day he met her, when she was like 8 years old and he was a teeenager. The plan was, from the very beginning, bond with Shion as the Maiden, give her the key, die to KOS-MOS and then become a Testament. That Kevin grew to genuinely care about her was incidental, she was Kevin's tool from the word go. She goes from tragedy to tragedy, so I'm a bit surprised that the community seems a bit mixed in her. She goes through this game thinking that she was her mom's condition and is going to die, and only Kevin can save her (who she loves).
Moving on to Ziggy, boy am I fucking glad I played Pied Piper before this, because the Voyager and Lactis stuff would've meant absolutely nothing emotionally without it. Knowing that Ziggy is fighting the guy who killed his wife and daughter in front of him adds a lot to their interactions. If anything, I wished I played the game before Episode 2, tbh. Also, I ship Jan with Juli.
chaos is Jesus, but the game is weird about it. Nah nah, he's Yeshua, who helped the Messiah, who is actually Jesus. But... Jesus is just the latinisation of the name Yeshua. So what was his name them?? It feels like they backed out at the last minute, because why would would you call him Yeshua? But you kept Mary Magdalene?
MOMO didn't get very much for this one, which is a bit sad. I like MOMO.
Jr got some because of his family, but Albedo is much less compelling as a reasonable tsundere. Albedo was at his absolute best when a completely insane sociopath. I do not enjoy how calm Jr and MOMO are about him, given how directly paralleled to rape the way he treated MOMO was. I was ok with Jr mourning having to kill his twin brother. Less ok with them smiling whenever Albedo shows up.
I have a lot more thoughts, but I'll probably stop here, don't want to turn this into a personal blog.
Oh, and now I've started playing Fire Emblem 4: Genealogy of the Holy War.
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Comment on I survived the certificate expiration of October 19th 2026 and all I got was to make a silly shitpost in ~tildes
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Raistlin LinkGuys, I fucked up. 4 Xenosaga games in a row might've been a little too much and I keep getting distracted now that I'm at the finish line. Instead of continuing disc 2 of Xenosaga Episode III, I...Guys, I fucked up. 4 Xenosaga games in a row might've been a little too much and I keep getting distracted now that I'm at the finish line. Instead of continuing disc 2 of Xenosaga Episode III, I instead started and beat Fire Emblem Sacred Stones. I think it's a better game then FE7, but I think FE7 left a stronger impression on me, not sure why.
Anyway, I'm back to Xenosaga and currently going through Abel's Ark. Even though I'm emulating, I've been trying to keep the save scumming to a minimum, but one of the bosses in this dungeon finally broke me. I don't know what I was doing wrong, but it was routinely launching attacks that would crit and would one shot my entire party. So I save scummed my way through.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Raistlin LinkI have finished Fire Emblem Blazing Blade, and have returned to Xenosaga Episode III. Everything was fun and games until the last map kicked.my ass, and I had to rely on the brolen unit they give...I have finished Fire Emblem Blazing Blade, and have returned to Xenosaga Episode III. Everything was fun and games until the last map kicked.my ass, and I had to rely on the brolen unit they give you to get to the credits.
Anyway, I'm now on disc 2 of Xenosaga, and I don't think they're going to wrap up every plot point in the time they have remaining. But I gotta say, in terms of gameplay, this is the best it's ever been, so it seems it's ending on a high note.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Raistlin LinkI've paused my Xenosaga Episode 3 playthrough, probably because I've played way too much Xenosaga this month. I'm instead playing Fire Emblem 7. It's a game I've never beaten, and am currently in...I've paused my Xenosaga Episode 3 playthrough, probably because I've played way too much Xenosaga this month. I'm instead playing Fire Emblem 7. It's a game I've never beaten, and am currently in chapter 28, which means I'm a couple of maps away from being done.
Having a ton of fun, but definitely feeling the need for the modern convenience of turning back time. There are some maps where everything is going well, then suddenly whoops, mage you can't see has Bolting and one shorted full health Nino in one hit, sorry. I'm trying very hard not to save scum, but this is one example where I went, no fuck that, I'm.not doing that whole map again because of that.
People say Lyn is a bad unit in this game, and maybe she is in Hector Hard Mode, but she's a god in my run. I can throw her into a castle, enemies will have a 0 or close to 0 percent chance of hitting her, and she'll one shot anyone in return, usually with her sick crit animation.
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Comment on What is your pet peeve with language acquisition? in ~humanities.languages
Raistlin Link ParentI think we need to differentiate between constructing a new language without gender, and removing gender from a language. Obviously this is all hypothetical and noone can affect a change of this...I think we need to differentiate between constructing a new language without gender, and removing gender from a language. Obviously this is all hypothetical and noone can affect a change of this scale on a language used by hundreds of millions of people,. but I can't overemphasise how impossible removing gender from Spanish would be. Every noun, article and adjective is gendered. I'm not sure what removing gender even means in this context.
Chair will always be silla. Unless you're removing the very idea of gender in its entirety, that will always be a feminine word because it ends with -a, like the female names María, Ana, Gabriela, Elena, etc. Similarly, a piso ends with -o, like Roberto, Fernando, Benedicto.
Obviously it's not as simple as the above and there are names that follow different structures, I'm just trying to clarify what we're saying it should look like. The suggestion I saw was just using the -o ending. But that's not removing gender, that's making masculine the only gender, which leads you into awkward phrases like el silla rojo. You had a nice little rhythm when saying la silla roja and it sounded pretty, but if you force articles and adjectives that don't belong, you've lost the alliteration you had going. As I said above, I feel this makes the language poorer, but I'm not sure what it's accomplishing.
There are things that are hard about Spanish, but there are things that Spanish is better at than both English and Japanese by far. For example. There is only a single way to read and say la silla roja. On the other hand, English has words like through, tough and though with three entirely different sounds represent the gh. It also has words like the and think where again the th represents two different sounds, which in Greek are separate syllables (δ and θ), but in English are represented by the same combination of letters. And God, Japanese was created to torture foreigners! You can't just wrote 私はすしを食べます and expect anyone to read that without learning two separate syllabic alphabets, and then a huge registers of thousands of symbols. In my biased opinion, grammatical gender (which you can gauge 90% of the time by seeing if a word ends with a or o) sounds like baby mode! You honestly can get by the vast vast majority of the time by seeing which vowel the words ends on, and if it's neither a or o, assume masculine. You'll be wrong a tiny minority of the time.
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Comment on What is your pet peeve with language acquisition? in ~humanities.languages
Raistlin Link ParentI think if you're purposefully building a language (for fiction, perhaps) I suppose the use would be in determining an in-group and an out-group. I really do think the best example is the Celtic...I think if you're purposefully building a language (for fiction, perhaps) I suppose the use would be in determining an in-group and an out-group. I really do think the best example is the Celtic do in English. Asking "do you want some cake?" and "you want some cake?" conveys the same meaning, and indeed, is a mistake people attempting to learn English on the ground without formal education make, and not using that do makes them sound uneducated. And if you were constructing a language, you probably wouldn't use it that way, right?
I think every labguage I'm familiar with has things like that. The kana は in Japanese makes the sound 'ha', except if being used as the topic particle, in which case it sounds like 'wa'. Even though Japanese does have a kana that makes the 'wa' sound, わ, this is not the one used for that particle. It's something you just have to know.
Similarly in Greek, you have eight vowels, α, ε, η, ι, ο, υ and ω. η, ι and υ make the same exact sound, 'ee'. Additionally, the combination ει also makes the 'ee' sound. So you will hear a word in Greek with the 'ee' sound and it can be any these symbols. The word for 'is' is είναι , which is pronounced 'eeneh'. You could in theory spell it as ινε, that would make the same exact sound. But you don't, and if you spell it like that, you look like you don't know Greek.
That's just languages, right? Evolution over millennia and millennia. They're all weird and clunky!
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Comment on What is your pet peeve with language acquisition? in ~humanities.languages
Raistlin Link ParentThat does make a lot more sense to me! In that context, I might same that removing grammatical gender would make a language simpler. I would still argue that you risk making it poorer and...That does make a lot more sense to me! In that context, I might same that removing grammatical gender would make a language simpler. I would still argue that you risk making it poorer and unmooring it from itself. But I don't think I would add grammatical gender to a new language, no. And I did, I'd probably add 3, not 2.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Raistlin LinkA few weeks ago I beat Xenosaga Episode 1, and last week I beat Xenosaga Episode 2. I think you can guess what game I moved onto... That's right, Xenosaga Pied Piper, the Japan-only mobile game...A few weeks ago I beat Xenosaga Episode 1, and last week I beat Xenosaga Episode 2. I think you can guess what game I moved onto...
That's right, Xenosaga Pied Piper, the Japan-only mobile game that contains Ziggy's back story. Or more specifically, the fan remake on itchio. The story was surprisingly good. Very Matrix-y setting, and though the romance is rushed, it was still nice. But man, the villain was so obvious, it immediately recalls the ProZD Lysanderoth skit. Like, is none else listening to this guy?
Also, I don't think the Joachim here and Joachim Mizrahi are the same person?? But who knows with Xenosaga.
The game only took 5 hours, so I was able to quickly people to Xenosaga Epis-- nah, I needed to watch the janky English translation of A Missing Year on YouTube, which I think started as an audio drama. It turns out that it's really easy to make cry after becoming a dad. All you have to do is have a little girl cry a lot, and that's it, you've done it.
And finally after all of that, I started Xenosaga Episode 3 yesterday. Given that the game immediately started hitting me with macrophages and Doctus, I'm already glad I did my homework with those two spinoffs first.
Whenever I go to Texas I see at least one. I thought they were more popular than they were, I guess.