Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@MarioLover92 In that case, you'd best try the pre-installed version first, because that is a Steam install, so that should work instantly. Be sure to let me know what you think of it, once you've tried it out.

@ThanosReXXX (In Mario's voice) Okey-dokey!

I'm downloading the game as we speak. (Or type, in this case. lol)

@MarioLover92 A final heads up: it's a VERY addictive game, so be sure not to start playing it too late at night on a week day, unless you've got the next day off...

It's one of those "let me just give it one more try" kinda games, and the variety in the levels and the mini games is really entertaining.

@NintendoByNature I do like my pointy metal stabby sticks in games. Will of the Wisps sounds even more awesome as you're describing it.

@MarioLover92 The GBA Castlevanias were delisted from the eShop?...Actually, I think I recall reading something about that. It's a shame, but I assume it was due to licensing issues.

Those are decent OutRun tracks! Of the two, I think I prefer Splash Wave.

@bimmy-lee I was never great at Civilization III; I got decently far in it, but eventually one of the other empires would hamstring my efforts, or else I'd get bored and move onto something else. XD I've also considered picking up Civilization VI, but I also share your anxieties about the learning curve and the fact that I REALLY don't need another time sink right now lol.

I've found quite a few silver linings over the past year. Indeed, the good company in this thread is one of them!

@TheJGG I've officially owned Monster Hunter Rise for a week and a half but only got to it this weekend; I was trying to wrap up a couple other games first. I didn't quite accomplish that with Let's Go Eevee, but I did hit the end credits this morning. I'll likely dig into the latter's post-game over this week before shelving it for awhile. I did dive into the original Trials of Mana (via Collection of Mana) on Switch recently but only did a few hours of Duran's route. Quite enjoyable, but I've decided to save most of my steam for the remake when I pick that up. The 16-bit graphics are nice, but I think I'll appreciate the QoL improvements in the remake more. As for TW101:R, my reasoning for seeing it through was, in part, because I dropped some $$ on it. I wanted to like the game, and there are some bits that were an absolute joy, but the overall package seems like it struggles to find its own identity at times. I just did some digging and found my impressions from when I played last summer. It was fresh on my mind then, so it'll be more informative than my current opinion. XD

After my wonderful experience with Final Fantasy VI, I'd love to dig into X soon. I imported the Japanese version of X/X-2 due to the simple fact that both games are fully on the cartridge; all this "download half the game" business annoys me. Patches are fine, but it irritates me when some companies can't be bothered to dig a little deeper for higher capacity cartridges for those of us who love our physical media. Especially when it's obvious they went through the effort in other regions. XD

I'm interested to see what Nintendo brings to the table for E3, especially since we're now officially in the PS5/Xbox Series X era. They'll certainly need a decent showstopper. I don't make wish lists as I only feel that sets me up for disappointment when something isn't announced, but at the very least I hope we hear more on Breath of the Wild 2. Until July (when 3 games I'm keeping tabs on will launch), there isn't really anything else I want too badly on the Switch front, though that's fine with me; my Switch backlog is already quite robust on the retail front, not to mention I'm still collecting the occasional DS or 3DS game to finish out my collection before prices really shoot up into NOPE territory. I'm getting close, but there are a select few retail titles and a couple eShop exclusives I want yet.

Oh boy, academic dishonesty....I really feel for teachers and professors, especially in these times. While I believe the majority of students are indeed honest, remote learning makes it easier to cheat for sure. Or to get extra "help" which results in the student(s) involved learning little or nothing. My mother experienced the latter problem with a couple of her remote students. In one case it was stopped quickly thanks to clamping down on a supervising cousin/babysitter. Unfortunately in other cases, it's paretts providing too much "help" in order for their child to do well and/or to get them out of their hair.

YouTube comment sections....I've come across a few tame/sane ones, but popular videos, especially news, and occasionally on videos with unrelated content....It's so easy to fall down the doom scrolling rabbit hole. I'm better about stopping myself from reading and, therefore, wasting my time than I used to be. Still, there's something both intriguing and addicting to watching the lows how one or multiple sides of a debate or argument will go, or how easily multiple people pass judgment with limited information. I'm thankfully not crazy enough to comment in such places. It saves me time and concussions obtained from facepalming.

Glad to read your hand is fully recovered. Sleep is indeed sacred to me and provides a ton of physical, mental, and emotional benefits. I usually shoot for about seven hours and sometimes clock more on the weekends, but my preferred minimum is at least six. Any less than that, I can function, but if it's for more than two days in a row....Nope. I've heard of people surviving on less with no detriment to their health. Depends on how one is conditioned or wired, I suppose.

Similar to you, I think mostly removing myself from social media has fostered many improvements. I know it's done a lot for my mental health. These days, this site covers most of my online interactions. I've also learned - and am still learning - that we can't please everyone, which is something I consistently tried to do in some of my early years.

@ThanosReXXX lol, thanks for the heads up. I think I'll enjoy it quite a bit, I like racing games and OutRun (at least the arcade original re-released on Switch) is no exception.

@Tyranexx Yeah probably. I'm no Castlevania aficionado so I couldn't tell you what those licensing issues were, if there were any. I remember the DKC games got delisted from the Wii Shop Channel, then they were brought back. The Game Boy version of Tetris got delisted from the 3DS eShop as well, which is rather odd.

@MarioLover92 The DKC games being delisted makes absolutely no sense; while Rare is now under Microsoft's umbrella, DK and Co. are Nintendo's property. They came back, but was there a reason given? Maybe "stability"?

I think I do recall the Tetris removal, though if I recall that might have also been related to licensing.

What a race today. I remembered screaming four times in a minute yesterday during quali, but though I didn't scream at all it was still a tense few hours.

Better late than never is a good mentality to have, @Tyranexx, and I can absolutely sympathise with waiting a bit to finish off a few games. I've had to do that this year when playing through... breathe... Kingdom Hearts III, Death Stranding, Ghost of Tsushima, Persona 5 Strikers, Trials of Mana, and Animal Crossing.

I've had a small deliberation about getting Collection of Mana, because for me it's a somewhat barebones package in terms of QoL features, and enhancements. The original Final Fantasy Legend game still runs in monochrome for crying out loud. When you do get Trials of Mana it'll be fairly enjoyable, if a bit lacking compared to modern RPGs. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it, especially because you've at least had the option to play Seiken Densetsu 3.

Having read your review of The Wonderful 101 I didn't even know there was an Easy Mode. When I do boot the game up again I'm setting it right to Easy, I was never cut out for anything harder than "normal"! The camera does suck though, I'll agree with you there. It's so standard, the right stick being a camera control, that anything different feels strange. But this isn't the best. Smart choice importing FFX/X2, I wasn't too thrilled when I had to download 12.9GB of extra content when starting up the game. I bought it physical for a reason, and the inconsistency between the Japanese version and the other ones is... jarring.

I believe the same thing; keeping expectations reasonable is very important, but I'd assume that for the both of us that we'd both be able to keep calm. I do agree that Breath of the Wild's sequel will be an important piece in the puzzle, because there'll be a fair bit of pressure on Nintendo to play a solid hand. E3's coming sooner so this discussion point will very much come to the fore.

I admit I scroll through comments a LOT. Just to see what everyone else has to say, but often times I end up disagreeing. I don't have that good self restraint in that respect, but all said and done it's good to see multiple perspectives. If I don't then it doesn't allow me to discuss various things while being truly informed and understanding.

My sleep time's decreased lately but I don't feel like it's an unnatural process. On a good day I'll sleep from 2100-0600, but depending on if I sleep earlier it may fluctuate between 0600 and 0500. Sometimes even on weekends I'd wake up at five in the morning, but that again feels very natural. I've gone from a ten hour sleeper easily, to stretching for nine.

I'm glad you feel improved thanks to your absence from social media, not because I have any deep-seated dislike for it, but because as good as it can be there's too many downsides for me to consider truly investing time into it. Sometimes someone would approach me asking if I used [you know what], and I would say in return; no, I message like normal people. It turns some people away but that's fine, it's a natural filtering process all the same. You can't win everyone over and that's something coming to terms with is easy.

been looking up old Andre the Giant videos on youtube last night.

Wrestlemania III to VI were and still are the best. Sad that Andre's health got bad in 1988 and 1989

@Tyranexx Yeah, who knows. It happened like 5-9 years ago and the whole trilogy is on NSO now, so it doesn't matter much now.

Speaking of Tetris, I've been in a Tetris 99 mood recently, been playing it quite a lot! I wanna try to get the Game Boy theme, though I missed out on it I can still get it for 30 tickets. I have the Super Mario All-Stars theme up right now, it's my favorite one and it's only because I have so much nostalgia for SMAS.

@MarioLover92 The irony is that DKC2 was announced for the Switch just after I got tired of waiting and bought it to play on the Wii U VC. XD Not a big deal; I'd rather buy the games outright vs. relying on an online subscription service. I also went ahead and bought the third game. I didn't like it quite as much as the other two, but it certainly was worth playing.

I've been avoiding Tetris 99. I'm sure I'd enjoy it, but that's not a rabbit hole I want to jump down right now. I don't blame you for using the SMAS theme; that game is awesome! Probably my first exposure to most of the early Marios barring the original.

@TheJGG I picked up Collection of Mana as I had no previous experience with the Mana series before that point. I don't regret my purchase at all, though I wish I hadn't pre-ordered it since I thought it was a limited release. Also, [WARNING: CONTROVERSIAL OPINION] I feel that Secret of Mana was a bit overhyped to me. I found the combat to be a bit slow and clunky, and the AI isn't the best. Of the three, my favorite was actually Final Fantasy Adventure/Seiken Densetsu 1, though that's in part because it's a lot like a top-down Zelda game in some respects. You can change the color palette for FFA, but the best you can get is the superior (IMO) limited GBC color palette. I'll be sure to share my thoughts on the Trials of Mana remake, though I will warn you that I intentionally am not so detailed in the Games You Recently Beat? thread these days just to save time lol. Though I'm certainly open to expanding on my impressions if anyone asks.

On The Wonderful 101: I failed to mention it, but there's also a "Very Easy" mode if one wants to experience the story with few interruptions. The game actually will lower the difficulty if one is struggling. I don't recall offhand if I mentioned it in my review, but I did experiment with "Normal" a bit before jumping down to "Easy" lol. I wanted some challenge, but some of the action is so chaotic that some happenings felt borderline unfair at times....I also don't typically play a lot of modern games where I wrestle with the camera.

Ouch. 12.9 GB for the X-2 download? So far my only robust digital add-on was for Spyro Reignited Trilogy, at roughly 8.7 GB. Another case where the bottom line was more important....

I don't find it hard to keep my expectations reasonable, at least when it comes to game news and announcements. Sure, there are games I want more info on and franchises I'd like to see make another appearance. But I also realize that game development takes time and resources, not to mention that what I want isn't necessarily what the majority wants. Keeping my expectations in check has done wonders for my happiness levels, especially when there's a surprise announcement I wasn't expecting.

That's an honorable time range! Though you certainly go to bed earlier and, therefore, get up earlier than I do on average. I typically shoot for a 23:00 bedtime, though lately that has ranged anywhere from 23:15 to right at 00:00. On work days I have an alarm set for 7:00, though on days without one I sometimes wake up either around then or closer to 8:00-8:30 lol. Though typically on weekends I stay up a bit later. I need to have more consistent bedtimes, but that's easier said than done depending on what's going on. XD

Regarding my comments on social media: Thanks. My investment from now on will indeed be remote outside of the Messenger add-on (I think I've mentioned why previously), but I will need to keep some tabs on FB again when my "seasonal job" (I volunteer for a local haunted house) kicks up in the fall as they often schedule many of the events and post schedules through the platform. It should be easy enough to filter my notifications at least.

This is very true, and is something I've previously (and still occasionally) struggle with. I'm glad you've found that nugget of wisdom as well!

We had a little field trip to a local oasis today and picked a few pics to share.

@Eel That's super cool Eel-ness<3 I was watching a show on missions in northern senora, and they looked like that shot with that bell. That's impressive that old bell looks intact. Looks old like what I saw on the show.

Man, that area looks super cool. Love the nature stuff too. Thanks for sharing!

Haha thanks! That bell is indeed from a catholic mission, there were only a few missions here in my state, because the conditions were less than ideal for colonizing, and many of them were destroyed, but the ones that remain have been restored and taken care of in the last few decades.

@Tyranexx Well I can absolutely sympathise with you when you say that you prefer the oldest entry in the series; I can easily say that with Super Mario 3D All-Stars, because I prefer Super Mario 64 of the three. I can't believe something as rudimentary as camera control is still something people have to complain about; because surely by now people've come up with good camera controls? Anyhow the controls in 64 are just... so... ahead of their time, that the experimentation made by Nintendo with Sunshine looks like a colossal failure.

I'll have to make sure to do that then, it'll give me less of a headache in the long run. I paid money for it like anyone else, so I'd at least want to see it through! Funnily I remember using half my brain fighting the camera when playing Super Mario 64, so it's nothing new for me!

I've had the poor tendency of buying lots of digital games. When I used to live in Kenya physical games were priced so horrendously it would take months to save up for one. I wanted to get Breath of the Wild but it cost the equivalent of one hundred dollars, so that was the fastest turn-off I've ever had to date. I ended up downloading the game, and although it takes up 15.5GB including DLC, I don't regret it at all. Other larger games I downloaded are Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Trials of Mana, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, Ōkami, and The Wonderful 101.

With smaller games like Celeste, Cadence of Hyrule, Super Mario 3D World, Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Super Mario Odyssey, and I suspect Monster Hunter: Rise, they're all small enough to warrant buying digitally. When the game's only 3.2GB in 3D World's case, it's a no brainer for me. Having said that I wish I found a way to import a Japanese copy of Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster, because that was just a copout. The whole game on Switch is 26.9GB, so getting all of that on a cartridge is a massive space saver. Glad you found that option, I'm mighty jealous!

This pandemic's really highlighted the hubris and the nerve of the average gamer. Expecting studios to continue producing games at full pelt is absolutely unreasonable. My suspicion is that for one reason or another Nintendo was badly hit by the pandemic and it derailed a number of their game plans. Of course Nintendo being Nintendo we won't know this for a very long time in an official capacity. And of course there'll be times when I think to myself, "damn Hideki Kamiya, what's the deal?" or, "gee, it's been a while since the last Direct,".

Rise early and retire early, is my philosophy. I used to try and stay up later back when it was fashionable (second grade), but I'm just not cut out for it. Even on days like New Year I can't do it that well; in '19 I fell asleep at 11:30, and this year I only just made it. It's important to be consistent because if not you'd just extend your waking hours. There's a time for sleeping and a time for... being awake? So it's good to invest time sleeping; you're already taking 30 years off doing it.

Using Facebook for jobs is a very interesting way to look at it! Adopting one will have to come sooner or later but I'd prefer to worry about it when the time truly comes. All said and done it's just about picking your conversations and sharing thoughts with those you do, in a select manner.

@Tyranexx Yeah, can't blame you on that. I only brought up NSO since it's the most recent example. I still have a lot of games on the Wii VC, though I didn't upgrade to the Wii U versions for a lot of them. I was in the mood for newer games at the time. What's really strange is that the discounted prices for VC games don't carry over to the 3DS, you still have to shell out $5 for each NES game on that system. Same thing with the SNES, with each game being $8. That kinda annoyed me...as much as I would like having SNES games on the go, I just did not feel like doing it, especially since I already got them on the Wii. So in that respect, NSO had me covered since I've been paying for it.

@Eel Great pictures once again! Always liked nature and things like that, it's why I took a bunch of pics at that park I walked in at a regular basis.

Guys I would like to share another of my boss designs.

Marcus the Fallen Archangel.

I wanted to make sure that there is a duality in his design. For me Archangels (unlike regular Angels) is impossible to be corrupted on 100%. So that is why one half is Angel and the other is corrupted demonic half.

Also the process as usual - https://youtu.be/4BwtL7pVjRI

@ThanosReXXX - Just saw an episode of Dino Riders last weekend with the kids on a cartoon block on YT. The DR toys were really cool too. When we watch those old cartoons with the commercials, my kids are always blown away that every cartoon also had a toy line, a breakfast cereal, clothing, pajamas, and underwear. They certainly knew the path to parent’s pocketbooks back in the day. That whole over thinking the names of characters was so rampant back then. It seems many of those old series were renamed every time they became available in a new country. In games as well, notably even in the Mario series. It can certainly make things confusing.

@Tyranexx - Glad you can find the occasional silver lining, it’s important for the ole mental health in good times and bad. Yeah, I’m really hesitant to add anything time consuming to the collection at the moment. I’m trying to get good at Pure Pool and work on stuff I’ve already purchased until Mario Golf in June.

@bimmy-lee Indeed. I also still wonder about the why of it all. Like with the Transformers for example: for us, the leader of the Autobots is and always will be Optimus Prime, which IS a much cooler name than the original name far as I'm concerned, which is Convoy, just so you know...

But, having said that, had they never changed the name in the first place, then we would never have known otherwise, and it wouldn't even have been a thing to wonder about for those of us who dig a little deeper than the average Joe.

On a side note: second win for the Western version, though, which coined the name "Decepticons" for the opposing force, whereas the original name for them is "Destrons". What the hell were these fluffy Asians thinking?

All kidding aside though, this isn't exclusive to cartoons, as you already mentioned. Just think of Resident Evil, which is known as Bio Hazard in Japan and I myself have seen some weird naming and subsequent re-naming (or should that be de-naming?) of all kinds of other things, like candy, snacks and even cleaning agents. For some reason, these first had new, European names when introduced over here, and later on, between the 80s and 90s, they somehow decided that it would be better to reinstate the original names.

Prime examples (Transformers-related pun intended) are M&M's, the peanut-containing version of which used to be called "Treets" over here (and only came in the color brown), and the multi-colored chocolate-only version was called "Bonitos", and they had smiley faces instead of M's printed on them. Nowadays, both are just M&M's and come in their trusted yellow and brown bags respectively.

Another nice one was Twix, which used to be called "Raiders" over here. Don't ask, because I simply haven't got a clue...

@Eel Those are some really nice pictures, my friend.
I especially like the top left picture in the first Tweet, and the top right picture in the second Tweet. The road almost looks like it is slowly turning into/being overrun with a river, which tells a great story just with that one image, and that tree in the second picture could easily guest star in the next Zelda or Resident Evil game...

The pictures of the flowers are really nice as well. Good, sharp focus.

@ThanosReXXX thanks! It's quite interesting because the road and places we visited follow a shallow river, going through a canyon. If you were to view it from above, it's this nice squiggly green line in the desert. At some parts, the river crosses the road, and when it rains it becomes cut off completely.

And yes that tree is indeed very cool, it's a very old olive tree, from when the missionaries lived there, they tried to cultivate olives and a few trees remain. It kinda looks like a hand in that picture. A little.