Well_known_bear's recent activity
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Well_known_bear LinkForgot to mention in last week's post that I also watched the Rilakkuma show all season. The reason I forgot was that this show is literally only 60 seconds long each week, but to its credit, it's...Forgot to mention in last week's post that I also watched the Rilakkuma show all season. The reason I forgot was that this show is literally only 60 seconds long each week, but to its credit, it's well animated and quite relaxing.
Mappa's new show Jimoto Saikou looks very weird but kind of interesting and I may also give that a look next season.
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Comment on Steam Machine prices revealed, starting at US$1049.00 in ~games
Well_known_bear LinkI was amused to see that at least one retailer is already offering its own homebrew Steam Machine at the same price. Price / performance aside, the little cube form factor is quite nice and I hope...I was amused to see that at least one retailer is already offering its own homebrew Steam Machine at the same price.
Price / performance aside, the little cube form factor is quite nice and I hope Valve takes another crack at this format when component prices eventually settle.
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Comment on Steam Machine prices revealed, starting at US$1049.00 in ~games
Well_known_bear Link ParentI have the same issue with my PC being in a different room to my living room. I considered a bunch of solutions (including a separate PC like the Steam Machine) but ultimately ended up just...I have the same issue with my PC being in a different room to my living room. I considered a bunch of solutions (including a separate PC like the Steam Machine) but ultimately ended up just getting a 15m optic fibre HDMI cable and running it from my PC to my TV.
The upsides:
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Pretty cheap. A decent HDMI 2.1 cable was only about the equivalent of USD 70.
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No setup required. You can just run games exactly the same way you do on your current PC. My wireless controller works through the wall when in my living room, as do wireless / Bluetooth mouse / keyboard.
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You can go back to playing games on your desktop whenever you feel like it. No need to fiddle around with separate installations.
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Only one device to maintain and upgrade.
The downsides:
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Having to roll up and roll out the HDMI cable each time you game in the living room. If you can install this through walls / around molding in your home, this isn't even an issue. Otherwise, it's pretty fast if you just use the 'over and under' coiling technique.
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TV occasionally forgets the right audio source. This is pretty rare though.
I've also tried streaming to my TV via Apollo (a variant of Sunshine) / Moonlight. It's fine for non-action intensive games, but I found the occasional hitches (even over Wifi 7) and compromise in image quality to be a bit of a bummer and nowadays mostly go for the HDMI.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Well_known_bear (edited )LinkThis season's shows LIAR GAME Here are the things I don't like about this show: The animation is pretty janky. The main protagonist is incorrigibly naive will have your palms glued to your face...This season's shows
LIAR GAME
Here are the things I don't like about this show:- The animation is pretty janky.
- The main protagonist is incorrigibly naive will have your palms glued to your face throughout.
- A couple of the tricks used by the protagonists and the antagonists could easily have been foiled by just demanding that the other party show their vote before they post it, and it kind of strains belief that these supposedly sharp players don't ask for that.
Other than that, it's pretty low key enjoyable. The games are simple enough to grasp quickly but have enough depth to allow for strategy and dealing, and it's presented in a way where it's easy to follow along (i.e. with diagrams).
Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu S4
Other than the first couple of episodes which briefly suggested a return to the S1 formula of fumbling around in a world full of danger, dying and repeating, this is probably the worst season of the show so far. The plot is constantly lurching from point to completely unrelated point like S2, except without the interesting lore, character development or building up of audience investment in what the characters are trying to achieve.Yomi no Tsugai
Rather slow paced with a ton of characters, but easy and pleasant to watch. The practicality of the protagonist and his willingness to just employ violence whenever expedient is refreshing.
Next season's shows
Mushoku Tensei S3
I'm on the fence about whether to watch this. I loved S1 and the 'sometimes events have bad outcomes and you just have to do your best to live with them' tone to the writing. S2 felt like a complete about face from that and ended up as the worst kind of school harem wish fulfilment dreck which squandered the character development built up in S1. Might give it a few episodes and drop it if it's truly awful.Youjo Senki S2
Not sure why it took 9 years for season 2 to come out, but I remember it being a fun (if somewhat mindless) watch and will probably also watch this. Kind of surprised that NUT are still around to produce this as I've barely seen anything else from them in the intervening years.Nijuuseiki Denki Mokuroku
Not entirely in my wheelhouse but willing to give this a shot since it's Kyoto Animation. I ended up finishing Hibike! Euphonium recently and enjoyed the movies / S3 a great deal.THE GHOST IN THE SHELL
Looks better each time a new trailer comes out. Very enthused for this one.
No adaptations of any manga I'm following next season other than Thunder 3, which is completely ridiculous but good fun. I seem to remember there being a kerfuffle about whether this was actually Gantz's Oku Hiroya writing under a different pen name because it's just so similar to his style (read: incredibly pulpy sci-fi action).
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Comment on Access to Fable and Mythos 5 cut off after US government order in ~tech
Well_known_bear LinkHere are a couple of simple questions (with perhaps no simple answers). Normally, regulation takes the form of a legislated framework where (ideally) all players understand in advance what is...Here are a couple of simple questions (with perhaps no simple answers).
Normally, regulation takes the form of a legislated framework where (ideally) all players understand in advance what is likely to be fair game. It's pretty unusual in any industry for the government to just point to a new product and say 'we reckon this is too powerful, no go'.
If the US government could potentially do this to any model going forward (and is presumably more likely to do so the more capable the model is):
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What impact will this have on the valuations of US AI companies, many of which are being priced on the basis of widespread adoption and constant improvement?
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What impact will this have on the current demand for semiconductors from the AI sector (and resulting shortage everywhere else)?
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Well_known_bear Link ParentKind of wish the toy-like non-'real robot' approach to mecha anime that they had in Majestic Prince would make a comeback. The writing might not have been the best, but the fight scenes with the...Kind of wish the toy-like non-'real robot' approach to mecha anime that they had in Majestic Prince would make a comeback. The writing might not have been the best, but the fight scenes with the mechs zipping around all over the place were really cool.
Sadly, mecha anime itself seems pretty dormant these days outside of Gundam.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Well_known_bear LinkBeen a slow season for me anime-wise, so I've mostly been reading VNs and manga. Pen to Wappa to Jijitsukon Mystery / romcom about a police detective and an unusually observant mute girl who...Been a slow season for me anime-wise, so I've mostly been reading VNs and manga.
Mystery / romcom about a police detective and an unusually observant mute girl who unilaterally decides they should get married. The mysteries are a bit all over the place in terms of quality, but the art is cute and there's an interesting overarching story that ties into the backgrounds of the two protagonists.
Recently confirmed for an anime adaptation.
Comedy / horror about a university student who loves horror and her senior who attracts ghosts, monsters and urban legends of all kinds.
Not as good as Utsuranain desu which has a very similar premise but also a cute romcom element, but still pretty funny in a dry way.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Well_known_bear Link ParentInteresting, I didn't realise that all of the cases in Staffer Case had alternative routes. I only got the 'bad ending' in case 4 and assumed it was something you had to see before seeing the good...Interesting, I didn't realise that all of the cases in Staffer Case had alternative routes. I only got the 'bad ending' in case 4 and assumed it was something you had to see before seeing the good ending.
It sounds like the sequel will implement actual branching paths based on how you resolve each case.
I also enjoyed Staffer Reborn, although it's much shorter. It has story elements which directly follow on from Case so is probably best played after completing that one.
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Comment on Nintendo Direct announced for June 9th in ~games
Well_known_bear (edited )LinkXenoblade Genesis Mildly excited for this, although it does look a bit drab and generic fantasy compared to the earlier games. Other than the obligatory 'running through a big field of grass under...Xenoblade Genesis
Mildly excited for this, although it does look a bit drab and generic fantasy compared to the earlier games. Other than the obligatory 'running through a big field of grass under a blue sky' scene, you could have told me this was a Tales or Trails game and I would have believed it. No giant robots, glowing swords or nopons to be seen anywhere.
I really liked Saitou Masatsugu's art for 2-3. Yoneyama Mai is also a good choice, but again none of the designs are really screaming Xenoblade to me.
The 4k 60fps switch 2 versions for 1-3 with new blades / 7th characters and quests sound nice, but if Nintendo is going to upcharge for this, the least they could do is also throw in the DLC.
Ocarina of Time remake
It looks fine. I get the feeling a lot of people were expecting something closer to the Wind Waker or Breath of the Wild cartoony art style, but the original game always had a more grounded look (within the confines of what the N64 could actually output) and this doesn't strike me as wildly deviating from that.
I'm not up in arms about the length as this is clearly a teaser and this game will certainly have its own direct. I'm very interested to see if they overhaul the gameplay. If it's just the same game with better graphics and a single new dungeon, then I can't really justify buying this again. On the off chance that it's an entirely new game which just reuses the story beats, though, I'm definitely on board.
Pokopia DLC
The dive move is nice, but I don't think it'll be a massive change to the base campaign unless they also add a bunch of underwater areas to explore and loot. Might be cool for people who want to build underwater aquariums and whatnot, though.
The underwater town from the season pass felt a bit weird. Maybe the premise is that there used to be a town above water that became submerged? It'd still probably feel a bit weird to restore it only for it to still be entirely underwater, though.
Atelier Karia
I'm not a big Atelier person. I just found it interesting that KT is reversing course after the heavily male-targeted character designs of Ryza/Yumia and going back to the more slender waif-like character designs of the earlier games.
Final Fantasy Resonance
A bit torn on this one. On one hand, I like classic turn based JRPGs. On the other, this is SE recycling a gacha game, complete with cross-overs blended into an IP slurry, which is very off putting to me. I'd probably be better off playing Octopath Traveler 2 over this.
Touhou 6 remaster
I'm glad they kept the ZUN art for this. It would lose a lot of character if they replaced it.
Not sure a remaster was really needed other than for compatibility reasons, as it otherwise looks pretty similar to the original.
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Comment on Can't post URLs with CJK chars in them? in ~tildes
Well_known_bear LinkAlso raised in this earlier post.Also raised in this earlier post.
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Comment on Persona 6 | Teaser trailer in ~games
Well_known_bear Link ParentLooks like it will be out on Xbox, PS5 and PC. I may end up holding off for the inevitable 'complete edition', by which point there may well be a Switch 2 port too.Looks like it will be out on Xbox, PS5 and PC.
I may end up holding off for the inevitable 'complete edition', by which point there may well be a Switch 2 port too.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Well_known_bear LinkMixtape Seems to be a lot of polarised opinions about this one! I ended up kind of lukewarm on it. The visuals and music are very polished, but there's not much here in terms of the themes, story...Mixtape
Seems to be a lot of polarised opinions about this one! I ended up kind of lukewarm on it.
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The visuals and music are very polished, but there's not much here in terms of the themes, story or characters that you haven't already seen a dozen times before in classic coming of age films. I grew up in the 90s but not in America (and certainly not as one of these cool kids who skateboard everywhere and go out into the woods to drink), so for me, it was basically just like watching a John Hughes movie without any particular nostalgia attached to the setting or the music.
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The protagonist is a bit of a dick, but then so was Ferris Bueller (both seem to also love fourth wall breaking quips into the camera) and I didn't find it hindering my ability to connect with the characters or their motivations. It's plausible enough to me that there are people who are so into music that they see it in terms of a literal soundtrack to life, even to the point where it harms their ability to empathise with people who don't.
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The gameplay is pretty simple throughout. Some of it (particularly the segments where you're just wandering around a room looking for the next item you need to progress) is a bit of a drag, but the set pieces which are integrated into the story itself are generally well done and don't outstay their welcome, feeling more like playable music videos.
Decent overall, but not one I'd rush to play if the trailer doesn't speak to you.
Sci-fi adventure game about a military spaceship which runs into some unexpected complications on a routine mission.
The gameplay and aesthetic is very much modelled on old PC-98 era adventure games, with a setting and animations heavily influenced by 80s sci-fi anime (especially UC Gundam). As someone into all of that, I enjoyed this a great deal!
The game strikes a great balance between giving the player freedom to explore and solve problems in different ways while not being obtuse in the way that the PC-98/NES adventure games actually were. There's a map for fast travelling (and if you get interrupted on the way, the game will automatically stop you) and an objectives screen showing what you should be focusing on next, so at no point will you need to just go around blindly clicking on everything. Interactable objects are highlighted when mouse-overed, and the inventory flashes at the points when you can actually use something. It all just feels painless to play. At the same time, if you want to go around and talk to / look at / use everything, you can, and there's plenty of extra dialogue and story/character tidbits you can pick up by doing so.
My only minor complaints:
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While there's a story flowchart that you get shown at the end of the game, you can't actually select chapters using it, so you'll need to be making saves as you go if you want to go back and see what the other story routes look like.
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The engine resizes the text to fit the (rather small) text window, so longer lines can get shrunk into a migraine-inducing tiny size. Would have been nice to have a large text option.
Horror RPG about a girl who wakes up in a strange place. Strongly reminiscent of the RPG Maker horror classic The Witch's House.
Features a gorgeous gothic anime aesthetic which looks like it came straight out of Rozen Maiden, paired with a great Ali Project-esque animated opening. The in-game pixel art also looks very nice, with detailed backgrounds that really bring out the creepy otherworldly Alice in Wonderland atmosphere.
Only played a bit of this one so far, but enjoying it quite a bit.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Well_known_bear (edited )LinkBeen reading a bunch of seinen manga lately. Touken Ankokuden Cestvs Combat sport / historical drama about a Roman slave who fights as a pugilist during the reign of emperor Nero. Nero himself,...Been reading a bunch of seinen manga lately.
Combat sport / historical drama about a Roman slave who fights as a pugilist during the reign of emperor Nero. Nero himself, his power-grubbing mother Agrippina and his bodyguards also appear as prominent characters.
The first series is an excellent blend of political intrigue, drama and tragedy and boxing manga. The action spans everything from mixed martial arts to gladiatorial fights, but there are also long lacunas focusing entirely on character development and Roman culture. Each volume is thoroughly researched and often even contains commentary at the end about Roman society.
The second series is a real contrast, being 100+ chapters covering a single boxing tournament. It's not bad per se, but definitely not up to the quality of the first series which feels easily as good as better known historical drama like Historie.
I've heard this classified as horror, but it's probably more accurate to call it an extremely dark drama. Focuses on a young man who returns to his family home in the countryside after burning out in Tokyo, only to see everything slowly fall apart.
On one hand, it's very readable and there was no point at which my interest in the story and the weird cast of characters flagged. On the other, it's kind of misery porn in the sense that every possible thing that could go wrong does, and pretty much everyone in the story is a horrible human being barely holding together a facade of normality, which is definitely going to turn some people off. Kind of like the polar opposite of a happy slice of life series.
Cute but hyper-bleak drama about two hostesses in Shinjuku in the 2010s, one of which is at the borderline of intellectual disability and struggles to get by in normal society. Abandon hope all ye who enter.
If you can stomach how dark and cruel the story (supposedly inspired by the author's real life experience as a hostess during the same period) is almost right off the bat, it does go to some interesting places with how it contrasts the protagonist's own unhappy life with that of her friend.
Also quite well paced at a compact 7 volumes, the last of which comes out shortly.
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Comment on Nintendo raises prices for Switch, Switch 2 and NSO in ~games
Well_known_bear LinkJapan (effective 25 May) Switch 2 (JP only model) increases to JPY 59,980 Switch OLED increases to JPY 47,980 Switch increases to JPY 43,980 Switch Lite increases to JPY 29,980 International...Japan (effective 25 May)
Switch 2 (JP only model) increases to JPY 59,980
Switch OLED increases to JPY 47,980
Switch increases to JPY 43,980
Switch Lite increases to JPY 29,980International (effective 1 September)
Switch 2 (International) increases to USD 499.99 / CAD 679.99 / EUR 499.99Amusingly, their hanafuda and other card products are also moving to 'open price'.
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Nintendo raises prices for Switch, Switch 2 and NSO
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Comment on Star Fox Direct shadow dropped right before premiere in ~games
Well_known_bear LinkFrom a corporate perspective, I can see the thinking behind releasing this as a remake: Cheaper development cost / shorter development cycle / lower skill needed, so the A-team isn't tied up....From a corporate perspective, I can see the thinking behind releasing this as a remake:
- Cheaper development cost / shorter development cycle / lower skill needed, so the A-team isn't tied up.
- Known to be a well received game.
- This is a largely unknown franchise for kids nowadays, so there's a fresh addressable audience (particularly after Fox's appearance in the new Mario movie).
At the same time, as someone who played this to death on the N64, it's disappointing that it's not a new game. A whole new rail / open area space shooter done in the flashy visual style of Fox's introduction in the Mario movie would have been so cool!
If the rumours about the Ocarina of Time remake are true, I'll likely feel the same way about that too.
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Comment on What's your dream job? in ~life
Well_known_bear Link ParentIn addition, accepting money for labour means assuming responsibility for delivering something of a certain quality in a certain timeframe. This completely kills the fun aspect of any activity for...In addition, accepting money for labour means assuming responsibility for delivering something of a certain quality in a certain timeframe. This completely kills the fun aspect of any activity for me, and I've always turned down compensation for anything I'm doing for the fun of it.
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Comment on Do you play knock-offs of celebrated indie games? in ~games
Well_known_bear LinkI think the question is not whether the later game is similar to an earlier one, but simply whether it can provide a superior or different experience to the player. 'Knock off' is perjorative and...I think the question is not whether the later game is similar to an earlier one, but simply whether it can provide a superior or different experience to the player. 'Knock off' is perjorative and implies a case where it doesn't (e.g. copying the same assets, story, systems, etc wholesale), but just being similar to / inspired by another game might not necessarily be a bad thing - e.g.
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Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley are the same game at their core, but the latter is giving you a broader, deeper range of systems, areas, items, characters, events and so on.
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Mario Maker and Mario romhacks are using literally the same system as the 2D Mario games, but they're offering you a different experience with levels you won't see in the actual Mario games - e.g. kaizou levels.
I wouldn't play a game that completely copies another to the point where I'm essentially just playing the original game (or a worse version), but I'd be willing to at least check out a game which offered something new / better.
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Comment on Toyota built a $10 billion private utopia—what’s going on in there? in ~design
Well_known_bear (edited )LinkThe city also has a website with some more photos (and of course you can just Google Street View it, although the photos are from March 2025 and a lot of it is just construction sites). If nothing...The city also has a website with some more photos (and of course you can just Google Street View it, although the photos are from March 2025 and a lot of it is just construction sites).
If nothing else, it's in a really nice location not far from Hakone and the Izu peninsula.
Finished up getting all the endings for Pocket Mirror. Really loved the visuals for this game - the whole cute lace and ribbons meets horror aesthetic is great. The only downsides:
The story is kind of obtuse and difficult to parse without seeing at least a few of the endings and unlocking some of the post-game content. I also didn't realise that this game was a sequel to Little Goody Two Shoes (which has an even more incredible early 90s VHS anime aesthetic) and makes a lot of references to the events in that story, so I probably should have played that first.
In order to get the alternative endings, you'll have to play through the same chapters quite a few times, but there's not enough variation in anything other than the endings to keep that interesting and the fast forward button isn't quite fast enough to not make it a chore, since it only fast forwards the text and not the animations. The devs did add a new game plus feature which has a chapter select / flag selection that makes this a lot easier - I can't imagine how tedious this would have been before that, especially with how opaque the conditions are to getting the different chapter outcomes.
Dragon Quest XI S
Playing this in honour of SE table flipping the development for DQ12.
This game is almost 10 years old at this point and is a PS4 game at its core, so it runs at a breezy 120fps even on my dinky GPU. Environments look a bit blocky by today's standards, but the characters and monsters all still look great and full of charm. It's striking how well stylised designs age.
The gameplay is very linear and mostly consists of going to where the conspicuous purple NPC directs you to go next while slaughtering everything in your path, but I'm not going to fault it for that since that's what people are signing up for with Dragon Quest. The towns, dungeons and field are notionally 'open zone', but there's very little to do in them other than run around and loot things (which can be quite fun in towns with a lot of nooks and crannies to poke around in but is a chore in big empty fields). Quests are sparse and simple to resolve. Mobs in the field can be effortlessly beaten in seconds with the auto battle AI settings. In general, there's very little friction to just constantly moving forward.
The only pain point is the terrible inventory system. For what I assume are historical reasons, every character has their own inventory rather than the shared inventory present in every other JRPG. This means that if you use a herb to heal in battle out of someone's inventory, you have to go into the menu afterwards and manually restock that character's inventory from your storage bag. If your thief steals some crafting materials, that stuff remains in his inventory to clutter it up until you manually move it out. It's incredibly tedious to engage with and baffling why they kept this in when streamlining so many other things (e.g. putting in a Persona-like one button 'just heal my dudes' feature instead of forcing you to manually go to the spells menu). I ended up just packing everyone's inventory with junk so that all new items would go into the storage bag by default.