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Happy birthday

Welcome to the Dirty 40 Club!

1. Pokemon Violet 2. :snes: Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 3. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage 4. Octopath Traveler 5. Metroid II: Return of Samus 6. :ps1: Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssee 7. God of War (2018) 8. :ps1: Crash Bandicoot 9. Spider-Man Remastered 10. :ps1: Crash Bandicoot 2 (100%) 11. Final Fantasy XVI 12. Spyro: Year of the Dragon (100%) 13. Jet Set Radio 14. Final Fantasy VII REMAKE (Platinum Trophy) Finally knocked this one out. Completed the Hard Mode run, finished all the combat simulator/colosseum stuff, and got the platinum. Later today I'm gonna get the final Chapter 14 resolution and get my last two enemies to assess(Cactuar and Ifrit) and I'll have the Play Log 100%'d except for one manuscript, because fuck you, I'm not fighting that house on hard mode again. I loved it just as much, if not more, than the first time. The Train Graveyard section is probably the slowest to get through and definitely feels more like a distraction than an engaging portion, and the Phantom boss was pretty annoying to deal with. Hard Mode in general really does test your knowledge of the materia and how well you can manipulate the system. The Hell House and Specimen H0512 probably gave me the most trouble for standard bosses, but most of them either had me hanging by a thread or taking two or three tries to finish off. And the final chapter was a pain in the ass, too. Dealing with the Whispers was more trouble than it should have been and I had to swap materia setups a couple times before I got it right. I feel like I beat Sephiroth relatively easy in comparison, but he was an ass, too. And then the final Combat Simulator fight...Jesus it was frustrating. I managed to beat Pride and Joy in two tries, but that was after getting stomped by Bahamut like 10 times more. The two times I did beat him, I was definitely hanging by a thread. God, I can't wait for Rebirth. Gonna play the DLC soon to tide me over.

13.) Final Fantasy XVI FINALLY got through this. Had abandoned it for a while due to Baldur's Gate 3 (which I'm still working on), but with Spider-man 2 and Alan Wake 2 imminent I decided to focus on it and get through. Overall I really enjoyed the game, there's a lot to love about it, but also a fair bit of stuff I found annoying. I know a lot of people liked the first half of the story, but I found it the least enjoyable part (though I didn't hate it). Just didn't have much of an FF feel a lot of the time. Felt more like Game of Thrones or Dragon Age narratively, which is fine I guess. Just wasn't expecting it. The last half really starts to take off and get into that weird Final Fantasy magic bullshit that I wanted to see. This game is a spectacle visually, and I loved every second of it. My main gripes come from a couple places. I hate a lot about the combat honestly. I don't mind an action RPG, but the fights (especially a lot of the mini-bosses and bosses) felt very rote. You just cycle through your abilities that are off cooldown and chip away at their HP and it was kind of boring until late in the game when the time spent in each fight was a lot more manageable with upgrades. Not being able to pick party members was all a huge drawback. Recruiting party members and choosing who to take with you is a big part of what makes RPGs fun and everything was preset in this when you were actually allowed to have anyone in the first place other than the dog. Even XV being a set party the whole game felt better than this because they were always there and it felt like they were actually part of the fight. The other characters in this game felt less necessary than Donald and Goofy in a Kingdom Hearts game. >_> My other main gripe was the accessories. Aside from the fact that their major accessibility "options" were tied to accessories, the other accessories available in the game were downright boring. Nearly everything was for one specific ability and just reduced the CD or increased the damage of that specific ability by x amount. At that point, it was more interesting to use the accessibility stuff because they actually felt like they meant something. The only other ones that felt worth using until end game were the ones that gave you more XP, Gil or ability points each fight. The main story was fun, batshit crazy FF shit, and the side quests had some really solid story to them even when they mostly amounted to fetch quests. They were interesting and well written and often gave you a lot of insight into the side characters. The combat had its moments despite its flaws, and the crazy Eikon fights, even though they were mostly QTEs, were a hell of a roller coaster. Voice acting was really solid most of the time too. However, there was a line near the end of the game while fighting the final boss, that I just don't think I can forgive. I had to pause and just let it sink in that they actually did this.

It sounds like the show has lost it's broadcast slot on TV in Japan going into the fall season because of some other show... and I guess it needs to air on TV in Japan before it goes onto the streaming services (there's a delay of like 12 or 24 hours from broadcast to when it goes live on Crunchyroll IIRC). Looks like it is basically in hiatus for now until the broadcasting situation can get sorted in Japan. Which is a bummer since there are only three episodes left.

Stray Dogs #3 (#53 overall I think?) JJK Hidden Inventory #4

JJK #3 - Glad that I didn't have login issues with Crunchyroll last night!

Now I just need to find some spare time one evening to watch a few episodes... I'm just barely staying current with everything I'm watching this season. Might have bit off more than I can chew in the spring season I think in the summer season I will follow fewer shows and then mix in some Demon Slayer.

Okay just finished the last ep. I don't 100% hate it but I do have a couple of issues of things. But overall it wasn't a total shit show, probably one of the better AMERICAN live actions done let alone live action adaptations of an anime I've seen in while. I give it a 80ish% score. The good stuff first. They pretty much stayed on par with keep Yokko Kanno's music in and keeping that aesthetic with the vibe of the show. Whether they just used the tracks from the original show along with some original music in there or all of it, I liked that. I have no issue with the order of their bounties. Most of them were stand alone stories with elements that kept the main story moving along with Spike/Faye and other things. So them being rearranged isn't too bad in my case. I loved that they kept Big Shot. I would've been legit sad if they kept that. I loved the visual stuff they kept to that. All the easter eggs. Most of the cast was well done, and even with the faults I find I think the actors did the best they could in their roles. I don't even have an issue with Alex Hassell since the only other role with him I've seen was The Boys as Translucent. The fight scenes were for the most part well done and filmed well, if not a little slow in some fights where I feel it was slowed down for some reason but meh. They definitely tried to keep the spirit of the show intact and in some parts they succeeded at. But not entirely, which is sad for me. But it's not TOTAL garbage. The viewers who aren't familiar with the original show will most likely enjoy it because I have a feeling a lot of this was catered to them. I'm not surprised it's getting the the 50-67% ratings from IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes. Now to my issues, and again most of this is from what I remember and I'm re-binging the original as a refresher so this maybe edited later on.