Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

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@TheJGG Overhauled the music folder, you say? I will certainly give those new tracks a listen!....Though I'm embarrassed to say, I seem to have misplaced the link to that Google Drive folder. Mind sharing it again please?

Our mini-novels do lend themselves well towards the creation of a full-size novel, it seems. XD As of this writing, that document you shared is sitting at 104 pages! Not sure how much forum posts count, but it has been ages since I've written anything for recreation. I used to do the occasional bout of fan fiction, but some of those earlier examples...weren't very good. XD I unfortunately never saved a lot of it, and most of it was unfinished. Most of it was Pokemon-related, but I delved into supernatural and sci-fi elements for school writing projects back in the day. No objections to adding ThanosReXXX's posts as well; he's another member of the long post club.

I quite enjoy Nintendo Directs; they do fit some decent surprises in them. Even if some of the reveals aren't for me, I know there's an audience for them somewhere and am happy the games I may not care for hit the right notes for others. In my opinion, there's almost always something for everyone. Those that complain at this point that "Switch has no games" are either WAY too picky for their own good or are just trolling. I didn't follow Nintendo news closely enough when they were doing live E3 presentations, so the Nintendo Direct style is what I've always been more familiar with. It means I've missed some iconic moments, such as some of Reggie's earlier shenanigans, but the E3 digital events have, IMO, had their equally epic moments.

I used to not branch out much with my own gaming and mostly just stuck with games related to shows and other properties I was familiar with; I was a huge multimedia target as a kid. Thankfully, I avoided some of the shovelware stinkers out there, but not all of them. Pokemon was the only RPG series I played for years; outside of that, I was mostly exposed to and familiar with platformers, bite-sized action/adventure games, and the occasional (kid-friendly) shooter way back then. Other property-related games I used to own were quite good, such as Tweety's High-Flying Adventure on the GBC (platformer), Harry Potter and the Sorceror's/Philosopher's Stone (GBC as well, though there was a decent action/puzzler on the GBA), and the various entries in the Mega Man Battle Network series.

On Capcom: No problem! I'm not a veteran of their IPs, but I do have some experience. As mentioned previously (and the last paragraph), I've had some exposure to their Mega Man franchise (Though - opinion alert - I prefer the games with RPG elements over the platformers), Okami (VERY glad you're still playing it!), some limited recent exposure to the Monster Hunter series (Rise, as well as a couple of 3DS demos and the Monster Hunter Stories spinoff), the excellently underrated Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, and some of the many iterations of Street Fighter II. I don't think Resident Evil is my cup of tea either, same with the Dead Rising series. What I really need to do is give Ace Attorney Trilogy a spin; I own the collection but still have yet to dig into it.

Your E3 viewing schedule is very similar to mine when it comes to must-watches, but the airing blocks for your time zone would admittedly suit my schedule more. XD Though I do need to start getting to bed a bit earlier....

Sounds like that booster did a number on your dad. Hopefully he's fully himself again. In your case, I hope you do get to watch what you wish of E3 while dealing with few, if any, side effects.

I'm curious to see what else they do with the Dragon Quest III HD-2D remake. The RPGs I play are all over the place in terms of length, but I don't mind shorter ones as long as they're done well. Some games like Xenoblade Chronicles have decent pacing from start to finish, but others have arguably way more padding than I'd like. Back to the remake, I hope they keep it mostly 1:1 since I haven't played the original game, though it would be cool to see a little extra content. I would also prefer if Yuji Horii stays as Yuji Horii and doesn't go down the Kamiya route.

I'd say this is pretty accurate. In a way I'm obsessed with Nintendo, but I do agree that there's a such thing as TOO much....

Both games have been dispatched? I'm not sure how you are with keeping tabs on a shipment's progress, but if it's something I'm REALLY waiting for...I'll check the service several times a day. I wouldn't call it obsessive, but sometimes I check anyway, even if I'm fairly certain there won't be an update. A shame the lockdown was extended, but at least when it (finally) ends you'll be ready for life again! It seems ironic in a sense that Lewis Hamilton used that quote, then finished last; the important thing, however, is that he finished at all! Very true words there, even if they weren't quite what he meant in the moment. The guy's wonderfully human; I'm sure he'll bounce back in the next race!

That's a very nice steelbook for Persona 5 Royal; very eye-catching indeed! I'll have to dig up a web image of the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 steelbook as well; I'm sure it's at least comparable? I need to spring for one of those at some point, but I'd 1. need to want it badly enough, and 2. worry about import costs.

On Pokémon Legends: Arceus: Yep, we shall see. From what we've seen so far, the concept appears to be what the series has needed for years. It fits some of how I'd previously imagined the next stage of the series to be. That said, it does look a little rough around the edges, so I'm staying in the "cautiously optimistic" camp until we see and know more. Sinnoh is one of my favorite regions in the series (Not sure if I've mentioned it in this thread, but the Gen 4 games, which introduced the world to the Sinnoh region, had a huge impact on me back when they first came out) and contains some of my favorite Pokemon. Even if the fire starter is by far my least favorite out of all the starting fire Pokemon. XD

Truth be told, I could play the original Trials of Mana via Collection of Mana right now if I wanted to. In fact, I did spend a few hours with that version of the game, but the combat felt pretty clunky. From what I've read on the web, many who have played the original think the remake, mechanically, is an improvement in many ways. As much as its predecessor, Secret of Mana, is revered by many, I wasn't a huge fan of the combat mechanics in that title either. Sooo much grinding at later weapon and magic levels. Don't get me wrong, SoM is still a very good game. But it was, to put it lightly, overhyped. I was expecting to like it as much as some of its peers that also graced the world around that time, such as Final Fantasy VI, Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, and even Super Mario RPG. For the modern Trials of Mana remake, I am excited to experience how the game has been modernized...even if the VA work is sub-par. XD

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No worries, @Tyranexx I just found out how to modify the text in URLs, so I put it in my forum signature. I won’t have to search it up now if I want to add a new song! Though I can admit that unless I change my mind on some it’ll be some time before we get some completely new additions! Or is it? I have some stuff on my computer that may as well get on. I finished and fine-tuned an arrangement of Dearly Beloved, and God forbid if I meet a crazy Kingdom Hearts fan here because I’ll get slagged good! Plus a new arrangement of The prelude from Final Fantasy VII in celebration of FF7R: Intergrade. (more on that later) Nonetheless, enjoy!

Thanos said not to include his posts, which I absolutely respect. I think forum posts count as recreational writing but from a pure literary standpoint I’d consider posts like these to be… social commentary. Because not only do people discuss games here but also real world events, issues and such. I tried writing some fanfiction a few years back… I’d share it here but I literally can’t find it. Which is a shame because it was fun reading and writing it.

If I get bored this summer I may consider re-writing it. The subject, you ask? A faithful novelisation of Xenoblade Chronicles, of course! I managed to write three chapters before losing it, and I really focused on writing realistic dialogue; that’s key to immersion. One of the best parts of that was questioning the game’s logic. For example the bowl-like walls in Colony 9? I touched on it saying that going through Tephra Cave was safer than climbing the walls to get to the kneecap. If I were to tackle it again I’d have to come up with a realistic sense of scale for the Bionis, it must be… egads… kilometres tall. At a guess I’d say 35,000 feet? Then you’d have the problem of altitude and such. Bottom line is that’s a gold mine.

The saying “you’ll only miss it when it’s gone” applies very strongly to Nintendo Directs, because only now do people realise just how good E3 2019’s Direct was. In my hype-induced rabbit hole excursion I watched almost the entire thing again and as stated before have significantly more frequent waves of excitement because of how much more stuff I’ve played since it was aired. I’d absolutely disagree that the Switch is understaffed at the moment, I’d go as far as saying it has a bit too much!

A lot of the stuff available on Switch is frankly bordering meaningless, like your 99-cent indie games that get discounted to 19 cents every other week. I will admit though that this platform allows indies to shine, by giving them identical exposure to other games (except of course the big big first party ones). I don’t know why exactly but games like Stardew Valley, Celeste, Limbo, Inside and more, seem to belong on Switch more than any other platform. It’s because it’s portable, at least I know that much. Playing a game like Celeste on a 4K/120fps ready PS5 is overkill, so having a platform like Switch is perfect for those games.

My own gaming story’s like that, just a tad later. Replace Pokémon with Mario and you have me. When I was younger though I had an obsession with Dora the Explorer (partly because I was learning Spanish), and had two DS games, one for Dora and one for Diego… but other than that my parents still had a subconscious preference for first party games that has since passed down to me.

Don’t get me started on Harry Potter, I am a very big fan of the series. My father, who thankfully was in perfect fitness after that one off day, has an unusual disdain for the series, and often compares it unfavourably to the Middle-Earth saga. I think both are fantastic works, though Harry Potter is significantly more accessible than any of Tolkien’s books. That also aided the movie adaptations, which I felt were perfectly executed in pretty much every way. The child actors went from strength to strength with every passing film, and it was like growing up with them whenever I watch them in close proximity to each other. I would say that the Middle-Earth Saga compares very strongly too but the Hobbit trilogy dragged on way too long, and as such felt very thin at times, because it was a book the fraction of the size of the Lord of the Rings books, with the same runtime.

I do hope The Hogwarts Legacy is good though, I usually never buy movie adaptation video games, though LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean on DS, plus LEGO Harry Potter, Lego The Hobbi- oh, screw it, many LEGO [movie] games, are exceptions. A movie video game I would buy though is an adaptation of any Christopher Nolan film, or anything with him involved. Imagine two of the most imaginative and bizarre writers of all time collaborating on a big project. That could have been Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro, but it could also be Kojima and Nolan. Capcom’s another I will of course keep my eyes on. It’s come super fast now so my game plan is quite solid.

Visual novels… Ace Attorney falls squarely in that category. So does Famicom Detective Club, and then Doki Doki Literature Club. Those are all games I could invest in should I wish to, but I’m probably going to go for Doki Doki first because of the horrific twists, new content and the HD sprites. I always had outside interest in it but another game that belongs on Switch will get the Switch treatment, and just eighteen days until I’m able to see what it’s all about. Over the next few days you will no doubt glue your eyes to your monitor, smartphone or television, a bit more than normal, due to E3. So early sleep is very much advised and will pay off! Knowing your schedule you’d no doubt prefer to adopt my watching schedule, but yours is quite painful for me, especially the Square Enix one, which I’d probably miss if that was the case!

I saw a post from the Overrated/Underrated thread and one game mentioned was Final Fantasy VII Remake. I didn’t agree with all the criticism but I did agree that there was a fair amount of filler story content, plus the side quests were atrocious. I still think it’s a fantastic game that sets us up for a bright future. I doubt you’d want to see it considering you haven’t even played the game yet, but Square sneaked in a second ending cutscene, probably…. no, legitimately teasing us for the second part. That won’t happen for DQ3, a game 32 years old without any plans that I know of to expand the story or change… well… anything.

I wouldn’t say I want a full remake but I wouldn’t want them to keep it fully 1:1. I’d like at least some changes like a new dungeon, or sidequests, nothing story-wise obviously. I think Xenoblade’s length was perfect, just when it begins to wear off a perfect story curveball re-ignites the flame, over and over until you finish it. When I played it five years ago I couldn’t put it down, nor could I when I bought the Definitive Edition, which regrettably arrived a day after the release! It’s as good a time as any to plug Persona 5 again because that game was so damn long even I began to get a bit burnt out. It took over eighty hours, and mind, Xenoblade took 65, PLUS, I skipped at least two hour of voiced dialogue and cutscenes because I was getting quite tired. People call me addicted to Nintendo but I still have a ton of sanity left so I clearly haven’t taken it too far yet.

Some stuff arrived from the England-based mailing service, which mailed stuff they got from Amazon, all the way here. I didn’t expect they were the games and sure enough they weren’t, but the condition of the goods (for the record it was a Death Note leather journal, not for me) was quite good, meaning the journey was smooth. I wouldn’t say I’m obsessed with shipping details, because during the rare periods of time I was able to get stuff delivered straight to me for free (which was about seven months total in the last four years) it arrived within two days.

Oh God… this was hard to stomach but here it is… From the lead to fifteenth in one corner… but that’s how the chips fell in this particular race. He hasn’t made a mistake like that in a good two years so… it’s still fresh! He’s a very grounded, human driver, even if at times it’s very clear he’s playing mind games with his championship rivals. That’s sporting drama for you, and believe me I’m relishing the feeling.

The Persona 5 Royal steelbook screams style and it’s such a pleasure to look at. It has this very shiny lustre that captivates me the way a jewel would. I’d provide my own image of the Xenoblade 2 one but it’s quite scuffed and I suspect within two years it’ll be almost completely blank. I’ve taken good care of it since I noticed though.

I’d honestly be disappointed if Trials of Mana wasn’t mechanically better than the original. I will admit that it runs sub-optimally on Switch, I saw gameplay of it on PC and it looks much better. The game’s also very big, so it was a mistake getting it digitally (10.6GB in case you were wondering). Sometimes the camera’s slow and all but the combat’s quite responsive, if, again, a bit slow. But that’s life really, and it isn’t gonna be perfect. Just like the voice acting.