Maf

Embarrassingly I’ve had to go to Google twice now for answers where I got stuck on how to progress the story. The first was when you meet up with Sabre. Sabre is clearly the main character’s monster from when he was a kid, and the fact it can’t be killed, but I could run away from it, and it ‘keeps trying to remember something’, obviously I had to use an item but I had no idea what it is. Turns out I had to use the bow Bianca gave Sabre 5 years ago. Sorry, but I don’t recall that nuance to the story at all. I tried some other items in my inventory but just not that one. The second one is really quickly after and in the town of Monteforester or whatever it’s called. Essentially the answer is you have to talk to 3 particular NPC’s in order to activate a cutscene, and I talked to everybody over and over and even though all the NPC’s are standing next to each other, I don’t know how I was supposed to know that. I tried the usual JRPG of solution of just talk to everybody until something happens or someone says something obvious, but as far as I can tell there was nothing pointing to talking to people in order (And I even did talk to all of them over and over as well, just not in the particular order it wanted). I’m going to have to try do better, I don’t remember the last time I had to consult a guide for just trying to get through a game ?

You not going to try it?

Inside is frightening. I like it, but I don’t want to play it again

There is a 3-way Super Mario World race going on right now which is cool. I’ve always said I liked Mario 3 more than World but every time they go in to a level I’m like “Oh, I love this level”. Maybe I prefer World, after all But it doesn’t have a frog suit so that’s a big negative no matter how you slice it

Wow, so there’s a 3rd Bomberman game on the N64 I’ve never heard of before. According to Wikipedia it was only released in Japan and USA. It’s called Bomberman 64: The Second Attack. They’re playing it next

I just realised that last achievement I got in Ashen has an unlock percentage of 0.05%. That has to be the lowest for me.

Jesus Christ that was crazy. The amount of times he would lose it at speed level 20 and still bring it back and not die. New tip for me is missdrop is apparently inevitable? I’ve been trying to play it perfect with no miss no gaps, maybe that’s why I find it so hard. But if you allow that how do you make up the points? The only negative was the guy on the couch who didn’t even know what a Tetris was. I don’t know there time zone but surely in that building there was someone better suited to being on that couch Still, fucking crazy

Oh, shit they’re playing Tetris Effect Expert Journey mode next. This is going to make me so mad.

FUCK OFF

Looks like this game isn’t officially a Stadia exclusive...yet? https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-06-28-it-sounds-like-tequila-works-new-stadia-game-gylt-will-come-to-other-platforms-too

Legion of D edition £15.99 on CDKeys today ?

Honestly getting to the point where I’m too intimidated by this game to think about continuing. It’s just too hard. Someone else play this on Normal difficulty so I can piggy back off their play through ?

Sorry for the trillionth post in a row, but what can I do. I have by my count 3 nightmares left to go. The last palace dungeon, the boss fight at the top of the palace dungeon, and then the last boss. There are small bits in between but I don’t think those will be too bad, however any of of the 3 things previously mentioned could very well be permanent game stoppers for me. I’ve been looking up guides on YT on how to deal with this Palace area but it’s all speed runs of super experts just running by everything and warping about the place and like, err...I could do some of those things, but the things I could do I can’t even get too because of all the shit in front of it. Sigh. What am I doing.

So turns out you should always trust the nuns. After escaping slavery with Prince Harry we pottered around a bit to find out that Coburg, Harry’s old kingdom, had become despotic and mean because RPG’s, and somehow Harry’s half brother sitting on the throne couldn’t tell the difference or didn’t notice that a monster pretending to be his mum threw his real mum in the dungeons. And the only way to know the mum in the dungeon was the real one outside of obviousness was to get a magic mirror that reveals the real self. I had had to go to a tower cleverly called Tower Abovital But couldn’t get access because only monks can get in. So I wandered around for ages exploring all the different towns in both their day time and night time states to look for a monk/monks and came up empty handed. Eventually I went back to the church with the nuns to save and heal and just as I was about to consult Google I randomly spoke to a nun next to a pipe organ and she said? “Oh you mean the Tower down the road? Yeah, only we can get in there” Jeez. I will say in randomly wandering around I did ‘catch’ lots of monsters and beat a couple of Metal Slimes so that was cool. Anyway, long story short. Got the mirror, beat the monster queen and am about to get access to a boat and the rest of the map. But saved it for now and will come back to it later. It’s tropey as shit and I might sound like I’m being sarcastic but still loving this game. It’s so fun.

General, got it

I switched from Xbox to PS and I could watch it. Might be because the Xbox was on all day. I really like the races but it’s awkward when someone starts to really fall behind. They did a Sonic Mania race a while again and that was awesome. It really was a race where it kept going back and forth between all 4 runners

I think the cannon/tank level might be some of my favourite levels in a game (I know it’s an auto scroller but it’s still cool). However the rest of world 8 can eat a dick

Anyone else’s stream really choppy? Trying to watch this Mario 3race and it’s pretty much unwatchable

@illdog Have you seen Spiderverse? Homecoming is really good, but I think Spiderverse is even better

Yay v excited for my new bike, too

So somehow I have managed to get through the pitch black fall-y down dungeon and beat the 3rd boss on hard mode. I really don’t know why I’m even trying. It’s not because I care about achievement score it’s because I care about leaving things undone. It’s not the overall points value that matters to me it’s the 30/31 or the 96%. Drives me up the wall. But I really would like to play other stuff and not this over and over. Particularly because playing on hard up to now has already been very annoying and it only gets more real from here ?

Yeah, fuck this. I beat the first boss on hard but it’s not going to get any easier. On normal mode, by the end, the boss’s were taking half my health bar in one attack. Which I think is bullshit. The game obviously compensates for this somewhat because you have AI help and plenty of flasks. But in hard mode, the AI is still there, but you just don’t rack up enough souls to get more flasks. So knowing the damage that is coming my way, the reduced health bar and reduced upgrade to the health bar of completetion of quests, and knowing I’m always going to be struggling for flasks, I just don’t see this as being doable for me. I mean, it probably totally is if I just wanted to grind certain enemies forever so I could buy everything I need, but I’ve not go the time or patience

And complete. Man, F that S, how annoying is the end boss Oh, so turns out the last achievement to get is for beating it on hard mode. <sigh> I don’t think I have it in me

I know people don’t really like Jiren from Super because at face value he is boring, and I get that. But I think he is really under appreciated. What I love most about Jiren is he is the only Dragonball villain where off the bat it just seems like Goku can’t win. Of course it always does, and you know he can, but at least with older opponents Goku can hit them, he can damage them. You can see the path to victory, but how will he make it is the question. But Jiren is so fucking strong that Goku powers up to maximum right in the beginning and Jiren lays him the fuck out. Definitive What makes this so special is “What is the secret?” Now in hindsight it is (technically) Ultra Instinct, but no one knew that at this point. It wasn’t like Frieza where all you hear about is the Super Saiyan, or with Cell when Goku gives up, or Buu who’s gimmick is he can regenerate. Clearly in all those fights there are more things at play, they just haven’t shown themselves yet. What I love about Jiren, and what the Supreme Kai sets up so nicely in the beginning shortly before that fight is when he says “Jiren isn’t like anyone we’ve faced before. He is just strong. Plain and simple”. And it’s true, and I love that. There is no secret, or gimmick, or special way he got so strong. He just is. And, without knowing about UI, it was just like how the fuck is Goku going to win this? There was seemingly no path to victory. The whole thing about DB is it’s about working hard. Like the ethos to the show is the harder you try the better you get. It’s why Goku always wins and the bad guys always lose. Because Freiza is over confident and lazy, Cell is a cheating robot, Buu is...honestly bullshit. That whole arc sucks. But why Jiren is so compelling is without going in to his backstory, he is the same as Goku. If he is more powerful than Goku, by like 100’s of times, and he isn’t cheating, there is only one conclusion. Jiren earned it. So by the rules of the show, he has to win. And he, kind of does, if you know how it ends. Jiren subverts this ethos because, just like every other time, Goku powers up to Mastered Ultra Instinct. And at the end of the fight Jiren is still the one left standing. I think the real disappointment with Jiren and why people think he is boring is because his back story is very dull. When people didn’t know, the speculation was wild like he was once a god of destruction, he was a sole survivor of a universe that Zeno destroyed but Jiren was so powerful he escaped, when people realised Ultra Instinct was coming in to play they thought Jiren already mastered it. Trying to find the secret, like the older villains, that would ultimately prove to be he’s weakness and he’s downfall. But instead Jiren’s origin is all he’s friends/family was killed by a nameless, faceless thing when he was a kid and this traumatised him in to a mindset of power can only be obtained through solitude, trust begets nothing. And even though the way the origin is given is pretty mundane, the secret to his downfall is still there like people suspected. The difference between Goku and Jiren’s power, if you like, is that Goku has friends and trusts the people around him, and because anime, ultimately this is what proves to be the key. Considering the wild fan theories that went around about Jiren, the truth is pretty dull relative to them, but I’m glad this was it. The origin could have been presented better or spiced up a little bit. But I’m glad there was no secret to his power or limit to his ability and he wasn’t a fraud. Obviously everything in the show is designed to do one thing and that is serve Goku’s story, and the push and pull of the show is if you progress by effort how can Goku win the day against someone he can’t out effort (And in the end that remains true, he can’t and needs help), but I’m still glad they stuck to their guns about Jiren and kept him as this powerhouse threat and changed Goku’s path to victory 1) Because the show doesn’t feel robbed by some secret, backdoor way to stop Jiren and 2) it makes the show unpredictable. Goku has always won every battle by powering up to the next step, and in this case it still wan’t enough. Jiren technically won because he embodies the rules of the show. But Goku and co actually end up winning because together they try harder than Jiren can by himself. I think it’s a really satisfying way to end the series, without devaluing any of the characters, sticking to the rules of the show, and still leaving the door open for ‘sequels’, because Goku still isn’t stronger. The other thing people talk negatively about Jiren is he has no personality. But I think this is untrue, as well. He is very quiet in the beginning because they want to emphasise the fact he is the Mount Everest of the show. He’s big, strong, formidable, unmovable, and the less he says the less it gives away about him. He’s just a big, scary, dominating figure that overshadows everyone without trying. And every time the characters dent him, he just doubles down and destroys them, at times multiple characters in the same fight, in response. But he is like them, and he’s just bored because he is not getting pushed. But he’s character starts to reveal itself when Goku starts unlocking MUI. 2:08-2:25 is in my opinion such a terrific moment because it’s so confusing. But now I realise it another really smart way that the show gets the audience to respect Goku through Jiren. To take a break the thing thing that I really love about DB is it’s idea of indirect character building. The only way you know Goku is awesome is because everyone around him says that. All the characters narrating the action on the sidelines aren’t there just to make sure you know what’s happening, it’s indirectly getting you to like the main character without having the main character say himself you should like him, because if he did that you never would. Directly Goku is likeable because he is funny, indirectly Goku’s actions are impressive because you know the characters surrounding him know what they’re talking about, are super strong, and they are impressed by him. Lots of movies/TV/action based entertainment does that, but DB for my money has it’s own unique way of doing this indirect character building that makes it special and the characters constantly engaging. And this is what reveals Jiren’s character. He is not boring because he is so strong. He is so strong he was unimpressed. Now he’s finally getting interested because there’s actual challenge for him. Again making Goku impressive that he is the character that can do that, but also making Jiren likeable because now he is excited by the main character like the audience is. I guess the long long and short of it is, a lot of people out there hate or deny Jiren because they think he very bland and simple. But actually I think he is full of character that builds slowly and subtly, and not only makes himself really entertaining and fun but also serves the show and ultimately Goku, pretty much perfectly