Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@Fujimoto-San "Excessive" is a relative thing. Personally I don't think it is at all. But I've seen people who see any attractive characters as excessive fanservice. We're never gonna please everyone.

There are some people who I swear want everyone to dress like priests and nuns, be overweight, unhappy and either super bland looking or outright ugly.

Relative to other FE games, Fates does have more fan service. But I'd hardly say too much. On the other hand, though I don't really mind it, they really could have just released all 3 routes in one release, which they clearly learned from with FE3H and didn't repeat that poor design choice.

@Tyranexx - I forget, do you have a cat currently? They can be better equipped for long stretches of alone time. Seems like maybe we’ve had the allergy talk though. Yes, puppies are like toddlers: Cute, funny, clumsy, a little dumb (but learning), bowel control issues, they won’t let you sleep, they destroy all your favorite stuff, and you’re constantly, even irrationally worried they’re going to get run over. Other than that, it’s really fun!

@ThanosReXXX - I ended up doing a bit of googling as well, and it’s a pretty interesting situation. Yeah, there’s an original ending and another, longer edit made shortly thereafter. Part of my problem recalling a lot of this stuff is that I was watching it on public television, which made their own edits for time and content. Even cable made edits. Either version is a good movie if you ask me, though I definitely remember thinking the mafia story felt a bit tacked on, so I must have seen the original, shorter cut first.

Man, that fight from TWotD you posted is a classic. I’ve watched that video before, love the super slow motion. You can actually see Bruce be too fast at points and arrive at a block multiple frames before Chuck throws a strike.

Some of the shots that connect are brutal. It reminded me of an old wrestling angle between two big, scary monsters I liked back in the day. They had a long television feud, and decided to stand out on a mostly kid centric program by actually beating the crap out of each other in really brutal and bloody fashion. I was listening to one of the guys involved talk about those matches in retrospect and he said the scariest thing was knowing he was going to get punched in the face. In wrestling, they accidentally get punched from time to time, but to plan it out and plan on getting punched is a very scary thing to know it’s going to happen and anticipate it. So you can imagine how nervous Chuck might have been anticipating a kick to the head and then nearly getting his head kicked off by Bruce in one of those sequences!

My favorite part is a combo near the end where Bruce hits a nerve strike in Chuck’s right armpit, and then seconds later he sells it when he’s on the ground and his right hand is limp and twitching. Good stuff man.

@Heavyarms55 Exactly! That's what I've been saying. Some people just can't stand a character with good looks (either male or female) and just call it "fan service". I avoid associating myself with fandoms because of issues like that, besides the fact that they're also toxic most of the time. I don't think that separating the games' different routes was a wise choice but hey. I guess we got, what we got right?

@MarioLover92 Great news! My brother was browsing around in Target yesterday, and found Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury! We played it last night, and we had such a great time. As always I don't really expect a challenge from Mario games these days but its so fun to play. We already cleared and 100% World One and are in the middle of World Two. This morning we tried out Bowser's Fury and it was blast to play too. I'll be honest with you though, with all the metal in the background playing I thought that Fury Bowser was going to be.. more difficult. But we've barely started that mode so my hope is that the difficulty will increase, as we progress collecting Cat Shrines.

I wanted to ask you something. Are you familiar with Minecraft? I've heard that its a game that supports local co-op, but I'm rather confused to how the gameplay is. If you're not, then don't sweat it! I'll find out somehow, either that or I'll just buy the game, ha ha!

@Fujimoto-San That's awesome! I'm glad you got it and are having a good time with it. I know of Minecraft, but never played it.

@bimmy-lee Glad you liked it.

And yeah, I remember having seen that TV edit as well. As I have probably mentioned several times before, the Netherlands is very USA-focused, where entertainment is concerned, so it's probably the very same edit as well. I also seem to remember that stand-in having some kind of unnatural hairdo, almost as if wearing a wig, but my memory could be fooling me, so I'm not completely sure. Either way, as I pointed out before, the fighting in the edit and in the sequel was definitely of a lesser quality, so even if they did manage to make the stand-in look alike, that most certainly still stood out.

As for Way of the Dragon, yeah, that is to this day still one of my most favorite martial arts fight scenes I've ever seen, and I can easily watch it over and over. The slo-mo bit was new to me as well, by the way, so that was a welcome and pleasant surprise, thanks to that specific YouTube user.

On a side note and for your info: even though the punches and kicks did really connect, they were still the result of a perfectly choreographed scene, done by two professionals and dear friends, so they did rehearse beforehand and besides that, professional, high ranking karateka's know how to roll with a punch, so even though it will still have hurt somewhat, Chuck would at least have been able to mitigate some of the impact and subsequent damage.

EDIT:

By the way, I know you sometimes chat with Anti. Have you got anything that you wish to or are able to share with us about his whereabouts or, in case of illness, condition? We may not always see eye to eye or like the same things, but I bear him no ill will, so if he's in a bit of a predicament or ill, be sure to send him some wishing wells from this grumpy old Titan...

@Fujimoto-San Hi, I hope you don't mind me stepping in, but I've found this video, which might help you figure out how it all goes.

@ThanosReXXX Not at all. I've been thinking of buying Minecraft recently and these videos might be just be thing I need to clear up a few things before buying, so thanks! I appreciate it.

@Fujimoto-San Yeah. It's the internet. No matter what the topic is, you'll find a large, loud, group of people who wont just tell you why the thing you like is terrible, but also that you're terrible for liking it. And that's a big part of why I quit all major social media. Not quite the biggest reason, but it's one of the reasons for sure.

@NeonPizza

“YouTube was the final straw for me, at least when it came to actually responding to videos and other users. Aside from being incredibly addicting and constantly puncturing my other hobbies, it mostly feels like one giant cesspool of toxicity and an absolute overload of negative opinions, with people shouting obscenities left and right and acting completely out of line, or younger millennials spewing out try-hard clever one liners in order to gain multiple likes or attention from other users or the YouTube creator. It's not all bad obviously, but still.“

All true, and I hate the commercials too. However, I’ve seen some great videos on the site that I really love.

@NeonPizza Part of the problem is the way social media is designed. Be it Facebook or Twitter or YouTube comments - nearly all social media platforms put the most responded to/most liked comments toward the top. And the controversial, the offensive, the mean comments are the ones that get replies, which in turn pushes that negativity to the front.

Then you add in the trend that even this site is guilty of, of not having any form of meaningful dislike/downvote options... You see horrible comments that, although maybe it's like 30 likes and 150 dislikes, only the 30 likes and several dozen replies are visible.

Further add the protection of a username, computer screen and hundreds or thousands of miles of distance and that encourages people to be as mean and heartless as they want. And you're right, a lot of the time people would never behave like that in person.

It's not that social media companies are evil. There's no grand, evil plot or anything. They are just out to make money, and it just happens than encouraging drama and arguments is actually profitable.

@Tyranexx I didn't personally mind the separate releases for Fates. But I know a LOT of people did and still do. I don't mind it, but I also don't care for it and I'm glad they did not continue that pattern with FE3H.

Though I am still kind of sad that we never got a 5th route in FE3H where the characters end up allied and fighting against "the things that lurk in the dark" and I think that no matter which route we take, that story element is never really properly resolved. It would be interesting to see a direct sequel to the game with different routes based on the different routes from the first.

Also, my headcanon is that the true route is Byleth(girl) siding with Edelgard against the church. I know they don't intend for there to be a true route, but still. For me anyway.

I haven't played all 3 routes of Fates completely yet, but I would set aside what you've heard about the 3rd route and judge for yourself. Fates is one of those games, kind of like SWSH, that has a lot of loud haters. It might be that you end up agreeing with the critiques, but I'd say this is one of those things you should judge for yourself because the general feeling online toward it seems... tainted.

I understand what you mean with Camilla, but I also know why she's in the game - being that that happens to be a fairly common and popular trope in Japanese fiction. The doting big sister mixed with the "yandere" violent jealousy personality. But that does seem to be where her character ends for the most part. So I'd call that a very fair critique.

@Heavyarms55 To start, you said some story sensitive points which aren't under spoiler bars so for people who haven't played the game they could get spoiled.

There's two sides of me with this argument. The inner fan and lore/story appreciator in me would want to have a true route where everyone unites against Those Who Slither in the Dark, but it would defeat the whole game's narrative if there was one. It would make all the other game endings feel "incorrect" and "non-canon", whereas they all are canon depending on your choices.

I think that the idea that the entire story can't be encapsulated and experienced in one playthrough is a strength of the game, because there's so much stuff going on in the background behind you during your monastery and war days. Plus, when you have the choice to side with Edelgard in the Holy Tomb, there's the opportunity to experience the story both ways, from the church's side and then Edelgard's.

One of the biggest takeaways from the story is that it it didn't paint every character as inherently good, or bad. Edelgard can be a protagonist you feel sorry for, or a heartless villain who you'll take pleasure in finally killing. I know I felt the latter when I completed Azure Moon. Dimitri similarly has duality, he's either a heartless monster or a broken, lost hero depending on how you play and look at the game. Some "villains" aren't evil and some "good guys" are actually evil. And so on...

And carrying on from the YouTube comments @Vortexeo... I've stalled a bit in FFXII but I managed to clear Henne Mines quite easily. Then I celebrated by getting wiped out by the next boss, so I have some work to do. I had already put time into learning the Zodiac Job System and it's felt pretty good so far.

I've admittedly put more time into Final Fantasy X, I'm approaching the end of the game so it's starting to get really good! I'm almost at Mt. Gagazet, so I know there'll be a few challenging boss fights ahead!

I keep saying to myself "I will play FF7 tomorrow" The next day "Tomorrow for sure" I have been saying this for a month now LOL.

Well, there's some things there that are worth doing regularly, @Tyranexx.... Which I got pretty quick & efficient with! I'm sure there's guides around that'd cover the other bits if you want

So is everyone here just going to stop buying games until after E3’s over? I know @Snatcher will...

Nope, I'll still get the games I want that are coming up, @TheJGG.... Some of those are already paid for but there's some that didn't have the option to do that
The games that only get revealed at E3 probably won't be out for months, so you'd have awhile to wait....

I’ve stuck to that rule for a month already @BruceCM, but with extreme discounts there’s simply no debate. Like last week when someone at Sony thought it was a good idea to put KH 1.5+2.5 on discount for £9.99. Couldn’t have bought it faster even if I tried.