Simon

While sorting my PC in X for stuff to put in the bank for ORAS, I found an Extremespeed 5IV Dratini. Woo! Also yeah the demo is kinda eh but hey we got, uh, glalie... Someone just pointed out something to me: Slowbro's absolutely ridiculous physical bulk means it can run Suicune's old Calm Mind set even better. CM/Scald/Slack Off (or Rest if toxic is an issue)/coverage move. Also Mega-Mence is going to be banned so hard. I played around with it on Smogon's ORAS server and holy god there is no hard counter whatsoever. Just click Aerilate Return and birdspam until things die. Rock or Steel? Quake. Physical walls? Fire Blast/Hydro Pump.

(no, it's not real)

...unless I'm horrifically mistaken, UQ Holder just straight up killed off two prominent characters, sidelined (at best) the two main characters, and there is a worldwide zombie apocalypse going on. To top it all off, the only ones currently in the know about the cause are a normal human and a wraith/zombie/ghost/something (it's kind of unclear). And this was all caused by a single necromancer. Akamatsu what are you doing

THERE ARE LADDERS

YOU CAN SNEAK NOW Nudge the analog pad slowly and the character does this hilarious slow-sneaking animation. It's hilarious. RYDEL CAMEO

uh, is it just me or is Guy's sig changing like every five seconds?

Demo downloading as I type. WOO Also it's been confirmed that Cloud Nine cancels out the primal weathers. So Golduck > Groudon.

the greg is real

it was probably a coincidence but the route in pokemon gold/silver with the breeding day-care is 34 also:

Oh god. (I promise this is the last thing I'll post about Bravely Default until I finish it and do a mini-review) Basically the job system, when combined in clever ways, can absolutely skullfuck the game. Each character can have one main class (with stats, techniques, and weapon affinities) and one subclass (just the techniques). The combo I just figured out is as follows: Dark Knight + Spell Fencer. Dark Knight's entire schtick is using attacks that are powerful but cost HP to use. Spell Fencer puts spells on their physical attacks. Like the one that recovers HP equal to damage dealt. Three of that plus one healer as the backup option and LOLWHATBALANCE. It's weirdly brilliant, honestly, and I love it. I love this kind of thing where a game gives you a ton of options and it's up to the player to either play "normally" or cheese the fuck out of it. edit: oh jesus i just took down the absolute worst recurring boss (and they scale up a bit each time) in five turns edit again: I just finished Bravely Default. Holy shit, the climax makes up for the pre-endgame and then some. There's about six hours or so between The Twist and the finale, and it's a bit tedious (and the level grinding, though way easier at this point in the game, is also more prevalent than it should be), but oh my goodness I have not been that amazed by a game's finale in quite some time. If you own a 3DS, like JRPGs, and don't mind a bit more grinding than normal, buy this game. And if you need further convincing, this is the final boss theme.

I've decided to watch Kara no Kyoukai. yo ho ho

oh god

All I've been talking about here for the last week or so is Bravely Default. This will continue until I finish the game. Which leads me to this (MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW DO NOT LOOK IF YOU INTEND TO PLAY IT): Spoiler The big twist of chapters 5 and 6 is that the efforts the party spent during the first four chapters are essentially wasted, because at the end of chapter 4, you get punted back in time to the beginning of chapter 1. Or so it seems. You're high level enough to basically push through the four plot device bosses (which were formerly the end bosses of each of chapters 1-4) in the space of a single chapter, and now have an airship so the whole thing takes about an hour. So goes chapter 5, with the party noticing little, but significant, changes in the world, and doing plot things. What makes this really interesting is that the optional sub-bosses that you fight for each of the class unlocks are back, (and scaled to be a threat again), and their personalities are a bit different too. So you do plot stuff, get to the spot where chapter 4 ended, and BAM back where you started and chapter 6 begins. With even more differences. And this happens in chapter 7 as well. (8 will be the finale, according to the walkthrough I looked up out of sheer frustration) But I had a thought of, what if the game did this forever and there was no actual ending? Wouldn't that be such a diabolical developer trick that it would make the game famous as all hell? edit: ohshit

bravely default: THE OLD GUY KNEW HE KNEW THE WHOLE GODDAMN TIME WHAT WAS GOING ON HERE AND CONTINUED TO BE AN ENIGMATIC CREEP

not particularly surprised, although I didn't do much of the "importance" thing

SON OF A FUCK bravely default's plot twist got me. below is the chat log I had with Buddha as it happened: Spoiler Simon: so bravely default just gave me a "there's no turning back, are you sure?" moment Buddhazilla: well are you? Simon: yes Simon: i'm typing this for posterity because i'm sure something nuts is gonna happen Simon: flying airship into a pillar of light Simon: so *supposedly* this pillar, when fully activated by the heroes, will purify the world or something Simon: aaaand the ship is getting hit by mega turbulence Simon: oh son of a WHY IS THIS GUY HERE NOW Simon: i guess we've got a boss fight incoming Simon: at the end of every turn this guy is yelling stuff about "i must stop you or the world will be ruined something something" Buddhazilla: '> Buddhazilla: also this '> Simon: meanwhile the airship is in trouble Simon: this is entirely accurate yes Simon: they utterly refuse to tell you WHY you should probably stop Simon: while the party has what seems like a pretty concrete reason to keep going (the four crystals, when shrouded in darkness or whatever, were fucking up the world- winds had stopped, the water was stagnant, volcanos were going off more, etc) Simon: wha- okay wow that guy just hit me with a 9999 attack Simon: fucker Simon: and down he goes Simon: so uh, buddy, can you tell us with your last words why we should have stopped Simon: oh hey his helmet fell off a WHAT THE FUCK Simon: WHY ARE YOU IDENTICAL TO RINGABEL Simon: what the fuck is going on led Buddhazilla is now Away. Simon: AND HE HAD THE SAME JOURNAL RINGABEL HAD WHAT THE FUCK Simon: um Simon: Bonus points: the ship is getting sucked into a wormhole Simon: "chapter 5: yesterday's scenery" Simon: You cannot be serious. Simon: This is a scene from the prologue Simon: what the shit is happening Simon: yep we've gone time travel haven't we

Context for this one: The guy who does Breaking Madden asks for volunteers via twitter to be in his game-of-the-week, in this case: Then choosing the "winners."

Episode 3 of Stay Night is out. It's 20 minutes of exposition and talking, and it's done really well. Even though most of it is stuff that people not new to the franchise would already know, they made it interesting regardless. And then at the end of the episode when I got chills. It helps that said twenty-second scene gives off the "shit's about to go DOWN" vibe. also this

In which I chronicle stuff about Bravely Default: Spoiler Simon: oh dear Simon: bravely default is setting up for a plot twist Simon: save point and healing item right before probable boss fight Simon: oh god Simon: boss fight go Simon: ...that was... anticlimac- oh god he has a second stage to this fight doesn't he Simon: that was equally anti- OH COME ON HE HAS A THIRS STAGE? Simon: *third Count Dracubela: haha Simon: it's not even stages it's just the battle pauses for a second, he says "you shall not pass" and it continues Simon: the second time he yelled it Count Dracubela: dude are you fighting gandalf Count Dracubela: just fucking run man Simon: and he went down for good this time Simon: i may have overleveled Simon: it seems the swordmaster class's counterattack ability combined with the absurd defenses of the knight class, with another party member using an ability to make him attack only that first one Simon: is absolutely boss-breaking Simon: i guess this reinforces the emotional aspect of the fight considering it's the father of one of the party members Simon: aaaaand ded Simon: or... unconscious Simon: albeit crippled Count Dracubela: anticlimax intinsifies Simon: also there's a vampire in this scene who seems to have the sole purpose of exposition dumping Simon: well, that and being ominous Simon: "there is much you do not understand" etc etc Simon: and now the boss tower i'm in has journal entries all over the place Simon: plot twist flags are in low orbit at this point Simon: Why the hell are the party members still surprised when these plot crystals have boss fights? It's all four times now and they're all shocked Simon: one amusingly easy boss later Simon: ...okay apparently now i need to find a pillar of light somewhere

http://serebii.net/omegarubyalphasapphire/compatibility.shtml a tl-dr: XY/ORAS compatibility is as follows: Battles between the two cannot use any ORAS exclusives (and will tell you what you cannot use) Battle Spot stuff runs different setups so they won't meet up at all Pokemon with moves/items introduced in ORAS can't be traded to XY ORAS will have Bank compatibility, thankfully.

That's the guy who did Uzumaki, for those unaware. You're better off not reading it.

o_O and speaking of unsettling: