Psycho666Soldier

Ichinose Family's Deadly Sins finished! Overall, I'm hoping Taizan5 gets more greenlights to make works for SJ because I enjoy what he does. I think this series wasn't quite as tight as Takopi's Original Sin(which I highly recommend, especially you @Anelle), but it had enough going for it that I wanted to see it through to the end. It started with a great concept, lost some of the execution in the middle, and then ended pretty nicely, if not a little messy, at the end. Feels like one of those series that could actually use another read now with all the pieces understood. I also caught up on weeks of Martial Master Asumi and I'm still in love. I've never given a fuck about MMA, but there's something about the way the fights are choreographed that has almost a JoJo-like quality in how Asumi analyzes and adapts during fights. And the art continues to be stellar.

I don't like the sterile UI of the Mario RPG remake, but I'm excited for it overall

I never finished it, but when I was playing the MSX Metal Gear, I was going without a guide and I remember not having much trouble. Though there may be some stuff after where I got that was worse.

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.

God, it really sucks not having a proper party or any party control. Pretty sure I said as much in my Completed post, but they should have in the least made you manage their hp with control over AI settings. Same with Torgal, who has a bunch of special abilities in their Limit mode yet I've never seen one. It holds the active engagement/dragging sections back so damn much. And having just finished FF7R on hard mode, the contrast is fucking dire. Even the slow sections are more engaging because the combat keeps you on your toes and there's enough difference in character play styles that it always feels fresh. No amount of Eikon abilities can make up for the sameyness of Clive. All that said, I hold very much the same opinion as you that I really enjoyed it overall. Especially in the story department. Just felt there was so much more to be done that had been done better in both XV and FF7R.

I'm probably gonna get Mario Wonder in the next month. Me and my girlfriend both wanna try it out. Not sure if I'll play Star Ocean 2 remake any time soon just because I did beat the game not terribly long ago, but it's definitely gonna be the way I'll play when I decide to. I also wanted to check out Sea of Stars but a YouTuber I trust had a review of it that made me feel less inclined to go out of my way.

Man, I almost wonder if I need to just reread Elusive Samurai. Pretty much everything since the big plot shift has included a lot of characters I either barely remember or legit have no clue who they are. There are so many characters introduced up to this point that you sometimes only see in one or two chapters at the time or didn't do much of significance, and some of the moments where the cast seems to strongly remember someone is at odds with me completely not remembering them. It doesn't help that there are also characters like the Hisashiban who were all introduced at once and then mostly dead within a span of like 10 chapters. It's killed some of the narrative tension for me.

Chainsaw Man 143-146

Ichinose Family #43-45

Akane-banashi 81 & 82

So far Undead Unluck has definitely translated well as an anime. The breackneck pace helps fuel the chaotic energy, and the animation and sound design is pretty great. But they haven't even gotten close to the scattered stuff where you got lost so time will tell(for what it's worth, I also almost stopped reading at that point but it started pulling it back together after that point). My partners like so far.

I highly recommend Kaiju No. 8! It's a bit of an unsung juggernaut right now.

Just caught up on Sakamoto Days

Been pretty busy the last few weeks so most of my spare time has gone to either doing those things or playing Legend of Legaia, but I've been trying to read what I can. I saw Fabricant 100 ended and I've been very behind on that, so I wanna try and burn through that at some point. I've kept up with Beat & Motion(beyond the recent chapter), Akane-banashi(really like the current direction), Undead Unluck, and Ichinose(which feels like it's finding it's direction again even though it's still kinda obscure), and Kaiju No. 8. I'm also more caught up on Sakamoto than others, and I get the feeling we're gearing up for an ending within the next 10-30 chapters. Unless they're gonna pull a Chainsaw Man and start a whole new chapter in the protagonist's life. But I struggle to see them finding a new peak to achieve once this arc ends.

Excited for Spy x Family and Dr. Stone of course Definitely recommend checking out Undead Unluck. I'm curious how it turns out in the anime. It grabbed me early in the manga, then kind of lost me and thought they might have been getting cancelled, and then it swerved into being one of my low-key favorites to follow each week.

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 This has been a long time coming. Always loved this game, but never completed it all the way. I'd usually get to the point where the Golden Rhinos got involved, get frustrated with the increase in enemies combined with the awkward controls and would eventually just get bored/throw in the towel. Same thing sort of happened last time I started the game about a year or two ago, but I picked it back up to night to polish it off. Didn't really bother with getting every Graffiti Soul, but maybe I'll come back and do that piece by piece over time. Still a great game, even if the movement could be more responsive. The entire aesthetic of the game is just too cool that it's worth getting through any of the awkward bits.

I saw that and considered doing the same because I never finished the anime proper. Akane-banashi #76 and 77

Still gotta catch up on some of the rest from both this and last week, but I really liked Tenmaku Cinema:

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%) And I finally polished off the Spyro Reignited Trilogy. This one has a ton more content, and I think the various styles of gameplay were a great change to the formula. The final boss is less satisfying than Ripto though. All 100%. Now I just need to polish off Crash Warped, which is at like 89% but the golden relics are a fucking pain.

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 I actually beat Crash 2 a couple months ago and just forgot to post it: Finally finished XVI. Did all the sidequests and got all but one of the achievements I can reasonably get without grinding(which this game is not designed for) or playing New Game+, and while I mostly enjoyed the game, I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to play it again. Overall, it's a really good game that's held back from being great because of some design issues. I think other than scope, it tends to feel like FF7R ran so FF16 could jog brisquely. So, yeah. There are a lot of flaws. Especially with FF7R staring it right in the face doing mostly everything 16 did but better. And I see myself wanting to replay XV before this one to be honest. But as a brand new story and experience in an engrossing world that constantly drew me in, this was still a really good Final Fantasy. 8/10 God I hate copy/pasting from modern forums on mobile

I just need to read the last 4 chapters of Wild Strawberry and then I'll be caught up on all the current stuff I care to be caught up on, so I'll be blitzing some JoJo's soon. I expect you to finish before I even come close, though.

Chainsaw Man #141 Also, I can't recommend Martial Master Asumi enough. I think this has a lot of potential to become animated and have a good healthy run. The art is some of the best of what's being published right now, and the combat storytelling is excellent.

I really enjoyed seeing Denji hear how weird the church was and saying screw it. It's actually a good foil to what you were talking where it seemed like he was just going along with what he's told, where instead now he's thinking a bit more critically. Agreed on Beat & Motion. It was nice to see him still say something even if it wasn't exactly what he wanted to say. It felt like the message got across regardless. As for Shojo Null, I'm fully caught up now, and I kind of get the vibe the whole series is over-the-top lol. I also loved the Sakamoto #131

Seriously some of the saddest news. Right after Terry Funk, too. Even more of a shame that he never got his full due in WWE.