Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@BruceCM No prob, hope you'll enjoy the music anyhow! I know better than to force my hobbies down other people's throats, there's already a few who do that already.

In that, I do hope I can get Final Fantasy XV for real. I like real-time battle systems and the realistic Earth-like elements (cars) mixed with fantasy makes for a really interesting premise. The Royal Edition has very good value because it has all the character expansion stories, and every other DLC pack.

I'm trying to get Tomb Raider: Survival Edition though so it may wait until June; because I plan to get Monster Hunter: Rise in April.

Apart from Episode Ardyn, which was added later, @TheJGG .... Although that isn't my favourite FF, it's certainly not as bad as some make out! Let us know what you think if you ever do get around to playing it, then

@BruceCM Yeah, I've seen you... frequent, shall we say, the FF Thread, so I know where to find you if and when I come across it. I got into the series last year as mentioned over there, so it's early doors.

Besides, despite reading that Noctis is a quieter protagonist (who has a decent arc), he is voiced by Ray Chase. That, and Prompto is voiced by Robbie Daymond. I love the work of both these actors; (haven't seen any anime but rather Persona 5, FE: Three Houses, and Xenoblade X to name a few) so I'd love to see what I make of it.

Yeah, I still liked it, @TheJGG .... My list from best down would probably be FFIX, then X, VII, IV & After Years, XII, VI, XV, VIII, the XIII trilogy, III, I & last V but there'd be a fraction of a point between most of them, lol So, saying it isn't my favourite FF doesn't really mean much, in all honesty!

@BruceCM I've heard a bit about how terrible FF2 was. So that didn't even make your list?!

I wish Square remastered the older games, to give me a reason to buy them. With all due respect FFX's graphics, or maybe SM64, have the worst (or lowest resolution) graphics for any game I've played in my life. The SNES games at least run at 60fps... So FF9 and FF8 will be very difficult to get into.

I already passed on SaGa Frontier Remastered, Romancing SaGa 3, Collection of Mana, and more, because their graphical styles had been untouched.

I damn hope Square remakes Chrono Trigger, that's a game I need in my life.

Edit: I went... 91 posts without an Emoji and the streak's ended. I don't like them but some of them convey the right emotion.

That's the only one I gave up on, so .... @TheJGG! I don't want to get into MMOs of any description, which rules XI & IV out for me! I only played FFX/X2 on Vita & then got Switch version, where I didn't play it on TV, so it certainly looks great there I'll have to try it on Steam to see how it looks but it's supposed to be the HD Remaster. Collection of Mana was supposed to be the original games, basically, so I didn't get that Saga Frontier looked great in what I saw & I never got to play that before, so I'm looking forward to it. A nice version of Chrono Trigger for Switch, etc, would be awesome, though

I'm watching this Beatmania IIDX 9th style PS2 gameplay video before i will get that game on this week.

Well that makes the two of us @Tyranexx, the mistakes I make are rare but they hurt when I make them. I have a dodgy knee at times despite my age, I should be getting bad knees in fifty years, not now. Curiosity did kill the cat, so I was probably born with that motto down by heart. I never climbed up trees when I was younger though, I preferred more... controlled adventures like ziplines, canyoning and skydiving. And thank you, I'm glad to have gone on them, they're certainly a good story to tell at times.

You turn thirty this year (or have already, I don't know...), so of course when Coronavirus restrictions subside hopefully you'll be able to "wake up, get up, get out there". I'm sorry for the Persona reference for those who may get it but it makes sense. It just works. (Sorry to Bethesda fans). Either way it'll make for a special celebration and all. I personally like the outdoors too, but I.. adore it. I was in the Boy Scouts for a year and the camping trips we did were very memorable. The feeling of fending for yourself, cooking your own food, and all was a truly unforgettable experience. As for camping itself, I'm more mixed. I always slept in my own tent whenever we set up; I didn't like the other Scouts all that much. They were all born and bred Americans, and I, as you can read from my profile, am English, and mixed. We didn't gel at all, so while there were some intrepid Scouts that were very hospitable out of duty, socially it was blasé

Camping itself's awesome. I did a five day trip up Mt. Kenya, in... Kenya. Sleeping in tents has a really nice, rugged feel. Of course with the climate you have to be prepared for any event. But the first time I did it there wasn't a single drop of rain. I'll describe that in another post; it's a trip I loved so much that it warrants its own text wall.

I don't know specifically your character as a moviewatcher, but if you're sharp, perceptive and can pick up dialogue easily, you should watch Tenet. It really challenges you, not only with the insane concepts, but also with at times, how boring it is. It's a test but you'll walk away thinking; "This movie's flawed but absolutely genius." All in all it requires concentration so watching it in another tab, like I'd do for Marvel films every now and then, won't work.

The Xenoblade songs are that good. The Future Connected songs are bops in general. My favourite songs in order would be 1. Fogbeasts, 2. Bionis Shoulder (Day), 3. Time of Battle!, 4. Final Boss theme, 5. Bionis Shoulder (Night), 6. Gran Dell (Day), 7. Gran Dell (Night). The top three are so close because one's beautiful and calming while the other two gets your blood going! For me the Xenoblade 2 tracks are just underneath 1's. I broke down Gaur Plains and Gormott and as I revealed some songs just feel too derivative. But the original ones are bloody good, and some songs are amazing. This one is one of my favourites; Tantal (Night). The acoustics are truly fantastic, and it has such a winter feel to it.

Anime's a big investment as I've found out, so no rush on that either. Take your time, and find a good time to sit back and take it in!

@BruceCM I also had a couple marks from that line. Those smarted a bit. XD

@TheJGG It honestly wouldn't surprise me if I eventually need knee replacements; not only does it seem to be a common family trend past a certain age, but I'm sure my previous trauma will mean I'll deal with arthritis. Hopefully not for a long while!

I never did Girl Scouts or anything (Those cookies are overpriced anyway. ), but I did go to a summer children's camp for several years. It was almost two hours away from where I grew up. It wasn't tent camping though; there were bathroom/shower facilities, a cafeteria, and cabins for all the campers. No AC though, and we had help clean out the cabins for the next crew and bring our own bedding.There were activities to constantly keep us busy during the few days to a week that we were there. I made a few friends there, but I can't say I ever became close with any of them. I went until I was in high school. The high school week tended to clash with around the time my family typically went on vacation as well as a couple of local fairs, so I couldn't go.

You seem very well traveled! I like reading your stories. I'd like to make it to some other countries as well (post-pandemic). Unfortunately, a lot of travel off the continent gets pretty expensive in my experience. I've been out of the country once, but I was fairly young and don't recall much of the experience. We went on a short cruise from Florida to Nassau in the Bahamas and back. I remember a little of the excursion, but not a lot! Eight years old was a long time ago. We went into the lobby of some kind of hotel and I remember absolutely loving the aquarium inside. We took a local tour of some of the area too; I only vaguely remember that things looked very different from back home! Definitely a great experience, albeit a very foggy one.

On movies: I can definitely pick up on some things that some other members of the audience cannot, though I don't pretend I'm always the most perceptive person in the room. XD Some people like to smack the second Fantastic Beasts movie, and I agree it isn't perfect. But it's clearly meant to help set up plot for later movies, so IMO some things that people were complaining about (such as Queenie being won over by Grindelwald's words) made perfect sense to me.

Future Connected definitely added some wonderful tracks to the XC universe. I'm also pretty fond of many of the tracks there, and I daresay your ranking matches my own. I'd dump the Final Battle/Fog King track a bit lower to be honest, but it isn't bad by any means. It just takes a bit to get going.

I hadn't heard Tantal - Night yet in my YT wanderings. Another decent track! I think I know what game's soundtrack I'll be diving into at work tomorrow....

Been listening to the other tracks in that folder, too, @TheJGG ..... The ones I'm familiar with sound pretty good, so I'd imagine the others are as well

@BruceCM Thank you for the praise, from the people that have listened it's been near-unanimous, so I'm happy it's a worthwhile thing to do. I placed my best ones in, not necessarily to not dilute the experience, but more because those are more indicative of my skill.

Have a favourite out of the ones you've heard?

its dangerous to go alone!
take this.

Just watching roleplayers get their roleplay on.

Yaaay...!!!
I have beaten Orphan from Final Fantasy XIII PS3. 😀😀😀
That was really hard but Orphan form 2 was quite easy.
But even i have finished FF XIII storyline, i still consider FF XIII as one of the worst Final Fantasy games i have ever played in term of linearity, gargantuan HP of enemies, hard to earn money by normal way, etc despite the Bosses design was cool in my opinion. 🤔

Well being careful will do everyone a favour @Tyranexx. My family's trademark is... bad teeth and cancer so I have two possible ways I could depart. I did some research and found out my great-great grandfather survived World War 1, only to die of tuberculosis a few weeks later. A truly pathetic way to go but that's how the the chips fall here on Earth.

Yeah, the Scouts was never for me. The social aspect was not nice but the really grounded aspects like fires, camping and hiking were very appealing. It's a shame you didn't make lasting connections but it must have been fun while it lasted for sure. I was a competitive swimmer at the time so I couldn't balance the two in a way that would satisfy both parties. The swimming worked out well, I won 31 medals in eighteen months. Most of the time it was decided by less than a tenth of a second but sometimes I'd hit the zone and pull out a second, maybe two, to second place. As an athlete I have the wrong priorities; I have natural speed but my technique less so.

I've lived in a number of places so getting out of the respective countries was very easy. I'd say that I managed to get out there and do more things than most would, so I can agree that I am well travelled. It's good to see the world and go to all kinds of places, because culture primarily, but also just the feeling of being in another country. Seeing places as self sufficient as your home, with better tech, better governing, architecture, people, or worse.

The Mount Kenya anecdote is a fantastic one. I found this writing piece that I wrote just after it, and after reading it, it speaks better for me than I would now;

I've been to the US only twice but the last time I went it was very memorable. Of course it was extremely tourist centric but New York was... very good. I'd like to go back to the US, to see a less touristy place, or rather, something different to a city. I've seen New England in the autumn and it looks amazing, so that's an option. Somewhere where I could do a good hike, so I'd assume somewhere around the West Coast. I watched a few Insider videos on American food, and although they were fairly generic choices sometimes the sight made me salivate. Which is ironic because my appetite is extremely small.

I'm very surprised by the Fantastic Beasts plot twist, I always imagined the team was good through and through. But either way I'll definitely look out for the third one, I lauded Mads Mikkelsen's performance in Death Stranding, and believe he has the right levels of derring-do, anguish, and inner torment that Grindelwald has. It's unfortunate that some movies have to be blatant that they're setting up for a franchise, like the post-credits scene for Sonic the Hedgehog. But yeah, Tenet's there and waiting so if you have a list of movies to see (likely fifteen pages long at the moment ) put it there!

And Xenoblade 2's soundtrack's grown on me. It's not as memorable but having live instruments helps this game a lot. It's very good but not the best I've heard ever. But the night themes are fantastic, and on cue here's another one; Leftheria (Night). If you played this whilst exploring Satorl Marsh at night you'd find no difference to the atmosphere.

Not sure, you'd probably have to sing your version of one of the themes for my favourite characters for that, @TheJGG ....

@Anti-Matter nice! I still need to go back and finish ffx. I stopped playing for immortals and never went back. I liked x, but I wasn't drawn in like I was with 7 or 9.

Apologies, my singing abilities are microscopic, @BruceCM. In fact I could easily say they don't exist! Believe me, I've tried, and I end up killing everyone in a fifty foot radius.

I try to make it up with choral sections but... I'm glad I don't do it!

@ogo79
Krusty Crab Pizza ?

@Anti-Matter @ogo79