Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@Tyranexx ....I suppose this pleases me.

EarthBound is the game that got me to play RPGs. I had tried some on NES, but was too young and impatient to enjoy them over all the other games that were coming out. Plus, NES was still when I could get a weekend rental from the grocery store for getting 100s on grade reports, so I didn’t want to squander that on games I couldn’t get into. My buddy told me to borrow EarthBound in middle school and I was hooked.

@AlohaPizzaJack: I've played both it and Earthbound Beginnings/Mother 1. Excellent games, though I admittedly used a guide for most of the latter. Now if only they'd finally release Mother 3....

I wasn't big into most RPGs as a kid unless they were tied to something that I liked the show of; I was definitely a successful multimedia target. I wasn't even aware of the term "RPG" until my high school years. The first RPG of any sort I played was Pokemon Gold, which led me to playing (and still playing) the games of that franchise. Then there were some Harry Potter RPGs by the Griptonite studio that were amazing. Then there was the Mega Man Battle Network series, though these were more of a concept mashup than true RPGs.

Truth be told, I didn't start exploring the RPG genre to see what it had to offer until my late high school years. I got into them on my own and didn't really know anyone who played anything besides Pokemon. A lot of the SNES nostalgia that I have is related to some of the platformers on the system since my cousins had little else.

I play DQ on release and just couldn’t get into it. I think the atmosphere of EarthBound just felt fresh to me.

Made some hot chocolate while the weather is still not "sticky inferno". Gonna miss the not-hot.

@Tyranexx He may have a name, but personally, I've no idea. I just call him hapless knight, or loser, since he can be beaten with only two hits. I'd fare a lot better in real life, although jumping walls in full body armor would probably be quite the achievement...

As for the SNES Classic: you can either give me a heads up when you're ready, so I can help you out, or you can save 8 Bit Flashback's YouTube video about putting 200 games on your SNES Classic in your favorites for later.

Far as RPG's goes, I think that every RPG fan that still has a Game Boy Advance, DS or DSi lying around, owes it to him or herself to give Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dragon a try. It's a really good game, with an interesting cast of characters, great and sometimes even gripping story, and the gameplay really grabs you as well. Or at least: in my case. Entire hours vanished from my day sometimes...

Here's a video, just in case you don't know the game yet:

@ReaderRagfish The Golden Sun games are pretty good as well. Some other worthwhile ones are the Breath of Fire games, and the GBA Fire Emblem games.

@ThanosReXXX That reminds me. I need to get back to Shining Force one of these days. I liked it on Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection, but I no longer have it.

Man, I love history and architecture; seeing the Notre-Dame go up in flames like that is difficult to watch.

Wait what? What happened?

Is quasimodo ok?

@Morpheel It caught fire and so far a spire has collapsed. They’re trying to get art out now, saying the entire wooden structure is going up.

Woah that's terrible! I hope they manage to save as much as possible.

Do they know how it started?

@Octane I feel the exact same way.

@Morpheel The ironic thing is that they had recently started restoration works on the top level, and now it seems that the starting of the fire may have something to do with that, so it sounds like that it might be some kind of fluid or substance that was the trigger, and if that's true, it might be negligence on the part of one of the restoration workers or some of the possible other people involved.

Fortunately, all the iconic statues and statuettes were already removed from the top, to be worked on elsewhere, because these also needed some restoration done. It does seem like the entire roof is going to go, because that's nearly all wood with various kinds of plating. The church itself will probably survive, according to certain commenters, because that's all solid stone, obviously, but the restoration works will now have to be scaled up from touching up and cleaning the upper levels, to rebuilding almost the entire roof and the main spire.

Will probably also mean no visitors for quite a few years to come. Weird to think that the Notre Dame survived 900 years without a hitch, including a massive revolution and a number of large wars, and now when they were about to restore it to it's former glory, its roof goes up in flames in next to nothing...

From the videos it's pretty evident the fire started around the area being restored, and with people using power tools, in wooden platforms, with electricity, friction, sparks, maybe even gas-powered things, etc. It is very likely the fire started there.

@Morpheel True. The scaffolding was clearly visible around the spire and top level. I sure hope that it wasn't a person who accidentally started the fire, due to a mistake or something like that. That person is going to feel horrible for the rest of his/her life...

But accident by fault or not, it's a shame either way, so I hope that they can keep the damage within the bounds of still being able to restore the building as a whole. To lose an entire landmark forever, especially one that's on the Unesco World Heritage list, would be even more catastrophic.

Yes, we can only hope the stone structure will hold on. To see such an inconic landmark go down like that would be truly tragic. It's basically the centerpiece of Paris.

Okaayyyy..... there's going to be an extra news broadcast over here, concerning this fire in 10 minutes time.
Here's hoping it's not too bad...

@ThanosReXXX The entire inside was made of wood, and supposedly that's all gone.

It doesn't seem like anyone got injured during the fire fortunately. I just hope there were able to save most of the art at this point.

Such an unfortunate week to burn down too.

Well, that was one lousy and disheartening news update. The fire has now reached the lower levels, and the fire brigade can't seem to get a handle on it. I never understand this, in certain cases. I mean, there's special fire helicopters nowadays, but these aren't used here, but they should try using something like that, seeing as they claim that they have a hard time getting to the places of the fire that they need to get to.

Another weird thing is that they could have used fire boats, seeing as the Seine is right beside the cathedral, so there's no shortage of water. According to onlookers, the fire brigade also started quite late with their efforts. The fire had already been raging for well over 45 minutes, but the fire brigade didn't start their efforts until it was going for almost an hour.

@Morpheel Because of Passover, you mean?
That's the first thing I could come up with, as a non-believer.