vili's recent activity

  1. Comment on I ran a 50k today, please clap in ~sports

    vili
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    Oh! Indeed. I actually even went to the website and somehow just saw "50 mile". Thanks for the clarification! Will edit my comment. Edit: Thinking about it now, 50K miles wouldn't even make much...

    Oh! Indeed. I actually even went to the website and somehow just saw "50 mile". Thanks for the clarification! Will edit my comment.

    Edit: Thinking about it now, 50K miles wouldn't even make much sense, as 50,000 miles would be quite a bit of running. Twice around the world, or something like that. In my defence, units are sometimes hard to comprehend when different systems and notations are mixed. Oh well, I suppose it's happened to other people as well.

    1 vote

  2. Comment on I ran a 50k today, please clap in ~sports

    vili
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    Congrats from me as well! 50k is hugely impressive. For anyone to be able to keep the pace that you did for so long is mind boggling to me. If I (re-)count correctly, your pace (sub 8 minute kms)...

    Congrats from me as well! 50k is hugely impressive. Especially as I believe it's miles (?) and not kilometres.

    For anyone to be able to keep the pace that you did for so long is mind boggling to me. If I (re-)count correctly, your pace (sub 8 minute kms) is what I can just about maintain for a 10K run, not longer. And regardless of speed, my legs start to give up at around 20 km, or 15 km of trail running.

    So, hats off to you!

    I'm curious, how long did you train with a focus specifically on this ultra run? What sort of pace did you keep for your standard training runs compared to your race pace, and how often did you vary between slow runs, tempo runs and sprints? Do you train on flat terrain, or do you do trail runs as well? When focusing on this event, did you just run, or did you mix it up with other exercises as well?

    I'm considering starting to train for a marathon next year.

    Edit: cfabbro corrected me on the miles/km thing, edited my response accordingly.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on NATO alphabet in ~talk

    vili
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    Oh, I don't speak a word of Yupik. The word I copy-pasted is one of the default examples given for polysynthetic languages, also found at the very top of Wikipedia's article on the topic. They are...

    Oh, I don't speak a word of Yupik. The word I copy-pasted is one of the default examples given for polysynthetic languages, also found at the very top of Wikipedia's article on the topic. They are interesting languages as they challenge some assumptions that some standard theories of human language are built on.

    1 vote

  4. Comment on NATO alphabet in ~talk

    vili
    (edited )
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    It's something like "(I) wonder if even with his/her lack of disorderliness". It works a bit like the English word "disorderliness", just Finnish is a more agglutinative language and allows for...

    It's something like "(I) wonder if even with his/her lack of disorderliness".

    It works a bit like the English word "disorderliness", just Finnish is a more agglutinative language and allows for more information to be encoded with tucked in morphemes.

    Of course, now that I think about it, a pro answer would have gone with a more polysynthetic language like Yupik.

    T as in tuntussuqatarniksaitengqiggtu.

    Meaning, "He had not yet said again that he was going to hunt reindeer." A standard, much used example of a language that expresses sentences as words. Any linguist on the other end of the phone line with a bit of background in typology would surely know exactly what you mean ("t"). Or maybe not.

    Edit: Clarifications.

    2 votes

  5. Comment on Looking for watch recommendations as my partners Apple Watch doesn't even last a day anymore in ~tech

    vili
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    I have a Garmin Forerunner 965 and an iPhone. I also have some experience with Garmin's Vivoactive 5, Epix Gen 2 and Venu 3 as friends and family have those. The Forerunner 165 got some really...

    I have a Garmin Forerunner 965 and an iPhone. I also have some experience with Garmin's Vivoactive 5, Epix Gen 2 and Venu 3 as friends and family have those.

    The Forerunner 165 got some really good reviews at the time of release. Do check out DC Rainmaker, DesFit and The Quantified Scientist, if you haven't already.

    With Black Friday sales coming, it might also make sense to keep an eye on something like Venu 3, as the new Venu 4 came out recently and some places might be selling the still perfectly good Venu 3 for cheap. It's more on the smartwatch side of things, but does have plenty of sports functionality as well. Or if a sporty watch is important, Forerunner 265 and 965 might also see good sales, as both have been replaced by newer models.

    The notification counter on my 965 corresponds with the notifications on my phone, and I can typically read the received emails and messages from the watch if I want to. There are no granular settings for the notifications though, so what I see on my phone is also what I get on the watch. With an iPhone connection, there is also no way to reply to anything from the watch. I believe Apple restricts that, so only the Apple Watch can do it.

    Garmin's swim tracking is ok. Not perfect. I have issues with it not always counting turns correctly. Sometimes it misses a turn and counts 100 metres as 50 metres, and sometimes it thinks that I'm suddenly an olympic swimmer and counts my 50 metres as 100 metres. It does this less if I swim freestyle and do proper flip turns, rather than just lazily touching the wall and turning. The wrong distance doesn't bother me much but its automatic "fastest 100m", "fastest 400m" and such suggestions are often way off, which is annoying.

    Garmin's heart rate tracking is pretty good, I think comparable to other watch makers. But as with others, for any exercise where heart rate changes quickly, a chest strap is more accurate. I wear just the watch when I go for a steady run, but I put a chest strap on if I plan to do sprints.

    Garmin's sleep tracking is passable. It's worse than Apple Watch or something like Whoop, but I would call it good enough. It detects when I go to sleep and when I wake up, and the sleep score and stats derived from it tend to correspond with how I feel. I wouldn't trust its REM / light sleep / etc metrics too much, though. But then again, none of the wrist based sleep trackers are all that good to be honest.

    If you already have a Garmin watch, having both of you in the Garmin ecosystem can be motivating. It of course depends totally on the person, but both me and my wife get that extra little mood boost when the other person hearts an activity. It's a pity Garmin doesn't offer better challenges though, as we can basically just challenge each other in steps or swim / run distances.

    2 votes

  6. Comment on Tatsuya Nakadai, Japanese film legend that starred in ‘Ran,’ ‘Harakiri’ and ‘The Human Condition’ trilogy, dies at 92 in ~movies

    vili
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    Tatsuya Nakadai was an incredible actor who worked with some of the greatest Japanese directors during a career that spannied over seven decades. Masaki Kobayashi, Akira Kurosawa, Mikio Naruse,...

    Tatsuya Nakadai was an incredible actor who worked with some of the greatest Japanese directors during a career that spannied over seven decades. Masaki Kobayashi, Akira Kurosawa, Mikio Naruse, Kon Ichikawa and Keisuke Kinoshita are just some of the directors in whose films he appeared. He was one of those truly rare actors who was just as capable as a leading man, as part of an ensemble, or in a supporting role helping other actors to shine.

    If you are curious about his legacy and would like some pointers, check him out in films like Kobayashi's The Human Condition trilogy and Harakiri, Naruse's When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, or Kurosawa's High and Low and Ran.

    I never saw him on stage, but he was active in theatre throughout his career, with his last stage performances apparently just earlier this year, at the age of 92. In interviews, he always seemed extremely intelligent, soft spoken and humble.

    Nakadai was one of the last remaining names from the golden age of Japanese cinema, and certainly one of the few still actively working. An end of an era.

    3 votes

  8. Comment on NATO alphabet in ~talk

    vili
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    In Finnish you could say "E as in epäjärjestelmällisyydettömyydellänsähänkökään". I suppose you could also say it in English.

    In Finnish you could say "E as in epäjärjestelmällisyydettömyydellänsähänkökään".

    I suppose you could also say it in English.

    4 votes

  9. Comment on CGA-2025-11 🔴🟡🔵🟢 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 PlayStation WHAT? in ~games

    vili
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    This month's selection has been quite interesting, and a slice of gaming history that I never experienced first hand. I remember some similar arcade games from the 90s, but mostly I associate this...

    This month's selection has been quite interesting, and a slice of gaming history that I never experienced first hand. I remember some similar arcade games from the 90s, but mostly I associate this kind of games with the boom of similar concepts around the end of 2000s, with Guitar Hero and its clones, Dance Dance Revolution type games, and all the games that Wii, Kinect and Playstation Move allowed.

    I think there were also some games around that time that allowed themselves the kind of freedom to experiment and genre jump that Incredible Crisis has, but I can't really name any off the top of my head. Maybe some of the Telltale games like Sam & Max had similar vibes, although definitely not in such a tight package.

    That said, Pepsiman took me further back and gave me very strong flashbacks to Paperboy from the mid-80s. I spent a lot of time with that one in front of my Commodore 64. It was a very annoying game, but somehow also very addictive.

    As for the rhythm game section of this month's CGA, they have pushed me to think more widely about games that are based on sequences of predetermined button presses, basically quicktime events, a style of gameplay that I particularly associate with the French studio Quantic Dream, the developer of titles like Fahrenheit, Heavy Rain and Detroit. I know a lot of people have all sorts of issues with that studio and their games, but I personally quite like them, to a point where I have bought not one but three consoles pretty much solely to play a Quantic Dream game. I find their narratively tied "quicktime rhythm gaming" more interesting than the more abstract button pressing of something like Parappa or Guitar Hero.

    However, I did quite enjoy it when this rhythm game concept eventually developed into titles like Rockstar, a game pretty much like Guitar Hero, but instead of a plastic toy, you connect an actual electric guitar into your system and learn to play an instrument. Nowadays, I believe there are multiple other options like that as well. Which reminds me that I should really get back to Rockstar one day. I'm an eternal beginner when it comes to string instruments.

    3 votes

  10. Comment on CGA-2025-10 🕹️⏰ 🗺️ 🐸 REMOVE CARTRIDGE ⏏️ Chrono Trigger in ~games

    vili
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    We did it, people! Yuji Horii has just become the first game designer ever to be recognised in Japan's autumn honours list with the fancily named Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette....

    We did it, people!

    Yuji Horii has just become the first game designer ever to be recognised in Japan's autumn honours list with the fancily named Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette. As I understand it, that's practically Japan's highest civilian state decoration awarded to a non-politician.

    If you don't remember who that is: Horii is not only the creator of the hugely popular Dragon Quest series, but was also a supervisor and one of the primary writers for Chrono Trigger.

    Clearly the Japanese government noticed the overwhelmingly positive reaction that many of us have had for Chrono Trigger this CGA, as well as the love and enthusiasm for Dragon Quest that many of you have shared this month, and they decided that it was time to recognise Horii.

    Or maybe he's just one hell of an artist with a portfolio that few can match.

    5 votes

  11. Comment on Tips for becoming a tea person in ~food

    vili
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    If you miss the experience and adventure of selecting different coffee roasts and discussing them with your roaster, see if your area has a super fancy shit tea importer. You can of course also...

    If you miss the experience and adventure of selecting different coffee roasts and discussing them with your roaster, see if your area has a super fancy shit tea importer. You can of course also shop online.

    Let's forget flavoured teas and non-tea teas like herbal, fruit and rooibos for a moment. Not that there is anything wrong with those, but if exploring super fancy shit coffee was your thing earlier, you can do a lot of that also with the shrub that we call the "tea plant", the camellia sinensis. Think of it a bit like coffea arabica. It's the good stuff.

    Now, just like coffee comes in very different flavours depending on where the beans were grown, how they were fermented and how they were roasted, the taste of tea is also affected by terroir, fermentation / oxidisation and processing. If you enjoy exploring different taste profiles and processing methods, teas can offer you just as wide a range of experiences as coffee (or wine).

    And just like coffee, tea comes in different packaging. Tea bags are typically like instant coffee in terms of convenience and taste. Ground and small leaf loose tea is like supermarket coffee. Large leaf loose tea is like specialty coffee. Although that's very broad brushstrokes and not intended as a value judgement. I've had excellent tea bag tea, just like I've had great specialty instant coffee. I've had horrible full leaf loose tea, just like I've had disgusting specialty coffee.

    Tea "colours" are somewhat similar to coffee roast levels. White tea is your light roast. Black tea is your dark roast. In between, you have other colours and it goes something like this: white < yellow < green < oolong < black < pu'er. The "darker" a tea is, the more oxidisation it has gone through. But as with coffee roast levels, these are all the same plant, just differently processed.

    If you like lapsang souchong and you are specifically searching for that morning wakeup fix, take that as your starting point. Maybe try two things next: some fancy oolong tea, and some nasty fermented pu'er. Both come in a million different varieties, and pu'er even sort of comes with vintage years like wine, so I can't really tell you what you might like. But if you have that super fancy shit tea importer in your area, go in there and talk to them, sniff some teas, make uninformed decisions. You have a wonderful journey ahead of you.

    Now, if you do go to get your tea from that super fancy shit tea importer, you may be shocked about the price that they charge. Or maybe you won't, if you are familiar with super fancy shit coffee. In either case, keep in mind that super fancy shit tea can usually be brewed multiple times. In fact, most of those teas pretty much require multiple brews and you only extract the best flavour on the second or third brew. So it's not quite as expensive as it may first seem.

    Which brings us to brewing. Just like there are multiple ways of making coffee, there are several ways of preparing tea as well. Well, maybe not quite as many, and certainly not quite as expensive. But just like some coffee roasts are better brewed with one method than another, some tea types benefit from one approach more than some other. And again, just like different coffee roasts and different coffee preparation methods benefit from your water being in different temperatures, different teas also work best with different water temperatures.

    Which reminds me: just like with super fancy shit coffee, the quality of your tea drink also hugely depends on the quality of your water.

    So, there is no optimal way to make tea, but if you go and buy tea from that super fancy shit tea shop, I can give you a starting point that not only extracts flavour profiles well but is also cheap and perhaps even somewhat familiar to you if coffee has previously been your thing. It's a bit like the gongfu method of tea preparation that others have mentioned here, although a traditionalist would execute me on the spot for saying so. Or, some might at least say that what I do is not conventional, but it's the preparation method that I've been primarily using for years now.

    So, start by getting yourself an electric kettle with a temperature control, as well as a French press. Just don't use a French press that you also use for coffee.

    Put something like 10-13 grams of tea leaves into the French press. And yes, you can weigh it, it's your tea and you can do whatever you want with it.

    Get your water to a desired temperature. If the tea you bought doesn't tell you what that temperature is, do about 70 degrees Celsius for white or yellow tea, 80-ish for green, 90-ish for oolong, and 90-100 for black and pu'er. This is a starting point. You can tweak it later as you get familiar with your tea.

    Pour the water in and let it brew for about 10-15 seconds. Then pour it into your cup(s). And yes, that's seconds. Although this again depends on the type of tea and the amount of water that you use. Some teas require a bit longer, but rarely over a minute with this method.

    And remember, don't throw out the leaves that you just used. The next brew will be better. The one after perhaps even more so. In fact, if the super fancy shit tea that you bought was the type that had its leaves rolled, the first brew will basically be just hot water. Throw that out and let the leaves unroll naturally, then brew the first real drink.

    I tend to keep my used leaves in my French press for a day or two. That's typically 4-8 brewings for me (about 7dl per brewing), depending on how the tea behaves. Don't let it mould, though. How long you can safely keep your leaves in the French press depends a lot on your house's temperature and humidity levels.

    As with coffee, do let the drink cool down a bit before you drink it. The flavour will benefit from that. As will your mouth.

    Some teas are nice with sweeteners and milks, others not so much. Again, it's your tea, you can do whatever you want with it. Experiment, explore, share and enjoy.

    4 votes

  12. Comment on CGA-2025-10 🕹️⏰ 🗺️ 🐸 REMOVE CARTRIDGE ⏏️ Chrono Trigger in ~games

    vili
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    I felt the same, and when I realised this it turned the whole thing into a rhythm game for me. And not one that had particularly complex game mechanics. However, funnily enough, it's also probably...

    In contrast I feel that in COE33 [timed parries are] overemphasized to the overall combat system's detriment

    I felt the same, and when I realised this it turned the whole thing into a rhythm game for me. And not one that had particularly complex game mechanics. However, funnily enough, it's also probably the only reason I played the game to the end: upgrading and crafting and levelling and grinding are not game features that I typically like all that much -- unless they are rare events and have actual meaningful impact on gameplay, rather than incremental -- and I realised that if I just got really good at blocking and parrying, I could eventually win almost any battle. And so I did, finishing the game by not touching any of the side quests or areas, and scraping through battles with a seriously under-leveled party. It may not have been the fastest or most sensible way to play the game, but it was a way. I did have to lower the difficulty level towards the end.

    Which reminds me of another thing that I really liked about Chrono Trigger: I didn't need to level up my characters or upgrade my gear.

    Anyway, I do understand why Clair Obscur is so loved. It is very well put together. The voice acting (at least in French, but I hear also in English) is excellent. The soundtrack is gorgeous. The characters are memorable. The visuals are creative. The story can be touching, even if it wasn't quite my thing.

    recently finished Sekiro

    I got really obsessed about that game about a year ago. To the point where I ended up chasing down every achievement. Soulslikes as a genre is quite far from what I typically like (or am capable of), but something about Sekiro clicked with me. I think it was the metroidvania-like progression and exploration, combined with the feeling that I was actually getting better at the game, and my progress wasn't just my character's numbers going up.

    I've always preferred CT on Wait mode, because I feel like Active isn't that much in my own concept of the spirit of a turn based game.

    I would definitely have preferred playing a more interesting turn based game, but early on I felt Chrono Trigger's combat wasn't deep enough to keep it interesting, so I stuck with the active system. And while this could be seen as a criticism of the game, it's also not: I feel timed systems like these are really difficult to pull off well. If the rhythm is too slow it becomes meaningless, if it's too fast it becomes nonsense. In Chrono Trigger, for the most part, the rhythm of the active system was just right for me.

    That said, it also meant that I didn't really explore the combat system fully later on when it probably did get more interesting. I think I used a combo attack a grand total of three times in the entire game. They just never became necessary. I'm sure I could have made it easier for myself if I had learnt all the possible combinations, but when you are selecting things from a menu in a hurry, you tend to go for what you know will work.

    This is actually a bit similar to how I played Persona 5. I know it's in the title of the game, but in my 40 hours or so of playing the game I never really saw the need to change personas, so I didn't engage with the system any more than I absolutely had to. Maybe if I go back one day, I'll need look into it more.

    I guess I'm a simple man. If I see something that works for me, I stick with it until it doesn't. And if a game never gives me a reason to change my ways, I never change. And then I complain that the game is repetitive and unable to hold my interest.

    2 votes

  13. Comment on CGA-2025-10 🕹️⏰ 🗺️ 🐸 REMOVE CARTRIDGE ⏏️ Chrono Trigger in ~games

    vili
    Link Parent
    Oh, comments like yours certainly don't need to come with an apology. Having someone help you who is genuinely nice, passionate and willing to share their knowledge is quite infectious. In...

    Oh, comments like yours certainly don't need to come with an apology.

    Having someone help you who is genuinely nice, passionate and willing to share their knowledge is quite infectious. In addition to the information, it also transfers some of that passion and positivity. Thank you for making the cyberspace a better place.

    I am impressed by the breadth of your knowledge, but if I'm allowed to pat myself on the back a little bit, I'm actually also quite impressed with myself since I was familiar with (the names of) most of the titles that you mentioned. I could even place them in some kind of a historical context. My one-month dive into all things JRPG has clearly brought some results!

    That said, your comments and recommendations have certainly clarified where I should look next and which series and sub-genres might be more suitable for me than others. There is quite a lot of ground to cover but I'm curious to see where this journey takes me.

    I have actually played through Undertale and Clair Obscur. Both are titles that I remember fondly but didn't like that much. A bit contradictory, I know. Both really annoyed me in some way or another, resulting in a very viscerally negative reaction. But they were also very memorable and expertly crafted, which I enjoyed.

    With Chrono Trigger, I think the active battle system was appealing to me mainly because it forced me to make poor decisions. But I am usually more at home with turn based systems where I can take my time and think about things. It really surprised me how I ended up preferring the active mode in CT. We can add that to the list of things that the game taught me about myself.

    2 votes

  14. Comment on Introducing Kagi News in ~tech

    vili
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    The technology feed is indeed still too full of sales pitches. I wrote to them about it a year ago in connection with the previous iteration of Kagi News, when the situation was even worse, as...

    The technology feed is indeed still too full of sales pitches. I wrote to them about it a year ago in connection with the previous iteration of Kagi News, when the situation was even worse, as back then most tech articles often were just of the type "X now 25% off at Y". They have fixed it somewhat but it's still quite hit and miss.

    It's also a pity that they don't have news sections for any culture topics like literature, theatre or (arthouse) cinema. Those could do with better visibility.

    3 votes

  15. Comment on CGA-2025-10 🕹️⏰ 🗺️ 🐸 REMOVE CARTRIDGE ⏏️ Chrono Trigger in ~games

    vili
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    Those slimy slimes are funny! It's quite interesting that slimes specifically have become such a big part of the Dragon Quest brand. I believe as enemies they were pretty directly lifted from...

    Those slimy slimes are funny!

    It's quite interesting that slimes specifically have become such a big part of the Dragon Quest brand. I believe as enemies they were pretty directly lifted from Wizardry and Ultima, two western RPG series that heavily influenced Dragon Quest. Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure those two in turn took the enemy from Dungeons & Dragons, where I believe slimes have been present since the first edition rules.

    But that's kind of beside the point. Like you suggest, it's not the enemy itself that's memorable, it's the visual representation that Toriyama gave it. I suppose my own history with the slimes, as recounted above, tells us how effective that design is.

    Dragon Quest's straightforward combat does worry me a little. Which reminds me, are there any JPRGs where combat is much more like turn-based puzzle solving? I'm thinking of games like Gloomhaven, Into the Breach, Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes or even Magic: The Gathering, to give a few examples off the top of my head.

    My issue with JRPG combat systems often is that they quickly become very easy, with a handful of actions and combos that always seem to be the best option. And when the battles are challenging, it's usually not an open-ended puzzle challenge where you can be creative and assess risk/reward benefits, but more of a case of just trying to identify the enemy's one weakness and then spam against it.

    Chrono Trigger's pseudo real time system mitigated this somewhat as I had to adjust to changing circumstances under time pressure, leading me to make less than optimal decisions that I then had to course correct for during a more challenging battle. It worked well for the relatively short duration of the game and the variety of encounters that the game threw at me, but I doubt I would have finished the game if the playtime had been double or four times of what it was, i.e. the 50-100 hours more typical for a JRPG. I really appreciated how I never felt like Chrono Trigger was wasting my time.

    I'd rather hit my head repeatedly against 50 difficult (but fair) encounters, rather than breezing through 500 battles that I can win while reading the news.

    3 votes

  16. Comment on CGA-2025-10 🕹️⏰ 🗺️ 🐸 REMOVE CARTRIDGE ⏏️ Chrono Trigger in ~games

    vili
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    You can find the full (?) script here and compare the English SNES translation with the original Japanese, as well as a more literal translation. I myself don't see any direct mention of her...

    I'd be curious to know if the Japanese dialog was more forthcoming about Lucca's mom's disability.

    You can find the full (?) script here and compare the English SNES translation with the original Japanese, as well as a more literal translation. I myself don't see any direct mention of her disability in any version.

    What I do perhaps see though is a little warmer and gentler person in the original Japanese than in the English translation?

    While on the subject of translations and Lucca's mom, there is an interesting difference between the mother's name (and therefore also the code) in the Japanese and English versions. That website also has a couple of other articles on Chrono Trigger, including one that briefly looks at Frog's speaking style in the original English translation, which has been a subject of much discussion for the liberties that it took.

    For anyone studying Japanese and interested in playing the game in Japanese one day, I've also come across Anki decks like this one that pair the original Japanese with English.

    I spent way too much time this month reading about Chrono Trigger. Or maybe it was just the right amount of time!

    2 votes

  17. Comment on Introducing Kagi News in ~tech

    vili
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    It's now been a month since Kagi News launched. Those who have used it, what are your thoughts? Personally, I've been subscribed to many topics through RSS and I'm now thinking about...

    It's now been a month since Kagi News launched. Those who have used it, what are your thoughts?

    Personally, I've been subscribed to many topics through RSS and I'm now thinking about unsubscribing. There is something about these articles that just makes me uncertain about the whole thing. On the one hand, the feeds are mostly fine, but on the other, I would like my news sources to be more than "mostly fine".

    I don't think I have spotted actual factual errors, but sometimes the headlines or summaries are strangely worded, the emphasis is odd, and all in all there is just that ever-present feeling of this not being content that has gone through a professional journalist or editor. Word choices matter. And while I can deal with hallucinations when directly interacting with LLMs, I don't think I want to be doing that with my news reading. With publications, I know where their biases are and how their editorial policy shapes their reporting. With an AI summariser, not so much.

    It's also disturbing how often something like a Reddit post is listed as a source. While those discussions can have merit, they are rarely primary news sources.

    I see potential here, and the headlines at least have been helpful, but I fear that the Kagi News feeds are polluting my news reading in some way that I don't quite understand. Or am I perhaps reacting to an unfounded fear rather than reality?

    8 votes

  18. Comment on Looking for movies that combine religion mythology and supernatural elements in ~movies

    vili
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    The Pope's Exorcist (2023) with Russell Crowe didn't get great reviews but I enjoyed it. It's cliched but it's fun in the sort of bargain basement discovery sort of way. I loved Crowe's...

    The Pope's Exorcist (2023) with Russell Crowe didn't get great reviews but I enjoyed it. It's cliched but it's fun in the sort of bargain basement discovery sort of way. I loved Crowe's performance. My wife didn't.

    I haven't seen it in decades, but I have very fond memories of the 1987 Hong Kong film A Chinese Ghost Story, which features spirits and demons in a temple setting. It was beautiful and exciting.

    4 votes

  19. Comment on CGA-2025-10 🕹️⏰ 🗺️ 🐸 REMOVE CARTRIDGE ⏏️ Chrono Trigger in ~games

    vili
    Link Parent
    Thanks for the link! Before this month's CGA, my familiarity with the Dragon Quest series could be summed with the phrase "some Japanese game?". With the stress landing quite heavily on that...

    Thanks for the link! Before this month's CGA, my familiarity with the Dragon Quest series could be summed with the phrase "some Japanese game?". With the stress landing quite heavily on that question mark.

    Since then, I have learnt a lot from the videos that I linked, as well as from other sources, but I must say that the video that you shared and especially your personal recommendation is the first time that I really started to consider actually playing a Dragon Quest game. I have now added XI into my watchlist.

    The reason I hadn't seriously thought about playing the series until now is that from what I have gathered, while the games look quite interesting, they also look very grindy, which is not my favourite thing in the world. And they are also very very long. But Kotaku's video makes a point about there being as much grind (and challenge) as you want, and perhaps ultimately it's just a case of me needing to slightly shift my mindset and preferences.

    Chrono Trigger was very good at teaching me this, taking me this October from someone who was convinced that I'm just not in tune with JRPG battle mechanics or storytelling, into someone who is currently quite excited about a whole new genre of games that I could explore. I always thought that, for various reasons, JRPG games should be my jam, but I had never found one that I actually enjoyed playing to the end until this month's CGA. And this was also my third or fourth serious attempt at playing Chrono Trigger. I fully expected to give up once again but I'm very glad that I didn't, as something eventually clicked and changed me.

    A fun side-note: I lived in Japan back in the 1990s and I remember a couple of friends having these cute teardrop shaped plush toys in their rooms. I never asked them about those since Japan was so full of everything that I had no reference for and it just wasn't possible to ask about everything, but those plushies clearly made an impression since earlier this month, when I started watching those Dragon Quest video essays and first saw the slime monsters, my brain went oh, that's what they were!, having not thought about those plush toys for well over a quarter of a century. Now I kind of want to play a Dragon Quest game just to see those guys in the wild.

    5 votes

  20. Comment on CGA-2025-10 🕹️⏰ 🗺️ 🐸 REMOVE CARTRIDGE ⏏️ Chrono Trigger in ~games

    vili
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    I did a fair bit of side questing this month, exploring the history and context of Chrono Trigger from a few different angles. I've posted about the music separately in this thread, and wrote a...
    • Exemplary

    I did a fair bit of side questing this month, exploring the history and context of Chrono Trigger from a few different angles. I've posted about the music separately in this thread, and wrote a bit about the game's release in the other thread.

    In case anyone is interested in watching some YouTube videos, I though I could list some that I have found particularly interesting. I came into Chrono Trigger with very little understanding or appreciation of the JRPG genre, hence the fairly holistic approach.

    I'm aware that there is at least one large piece missing from my side questing, namely the Final Fantasy series, but that's intentional. I'm thinking about playing through Final Fantasy VII at some point in the near future and want to explore it without too much context at first. It will be my first game in the series and if it tickles my fancy as much as Chrono Trigger did, that'll be the time and place for me to jump into the history of Final Fantasy in more detail.

    Any additional suggestions what to watch or play or listen to or read for a better understanding of Chrono Trigger are more than welcome.

    5 votes