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Posts posted by Psycho666Soldier
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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.
SpoilerI do think the message of the ending is a little messy? I dunno, maybe this is a personal thing because I have enough people close to me that have had some fucked up families. So when a story tries to showcase a toxic family and how they learn to love each other, I think it can send the wrong message to people who should genuinely just cut family members off. But I do think it's nice that everyone did genuinely want to change and treat each other better, and while they can be more open with their flawed behavior, they want to make it work. So yeah, I think it works ok for the context, it's just a little iffy. Especially with the way Kakeru and the Grandpa tried to handle things by permanently drugging everyone lol.
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.
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I don't like the sterile UI of the Mario RPG remake, but I'm excited for it overall
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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.
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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.
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6 hours ago, Mera'din said: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.
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.
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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.
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I know we tried to do a weekly edition of this, but I'm too lazy to look any farther to see if we've done a general version of this thread.
What's your current days look like as far as gaming goes? I had to take a bit of a break while I was working on a game jam project, but currently I've been going back and forth between Legend of Legaia and replaying FF7R for the platinum trophy. I'm up to Chapter 14 now on Hard Mode and after finishing just need to pick chapters to pick up the scraps. Some of these bosses are way harder. The House rocked my shit for like 6 hours over tell sessions.
I have a couple other games I'm sort of working through, but they're mostly on hold until I get through one of these.
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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.
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Chainsaw Man 143-146
SpoilerI didn't mind the slower pace as much as you, bomb. Like we haven't got into full action, but the tension has been rising and I like the snippets of action we've been getting. Also didn't expect to see the Katana Devil again! Definitely seems like we're gearing up for some heavy level action, so hopefully we get some balls out chapters for a few weeks.
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Ichinose Family #43-45
SpoilerYeah, I think this manga got off pace for a bit, but we're getting back to some good stuff. It seemed to lose focus a few chapters after getting out of the dream, and then the reunion with Sota ended up being good but felt really forced and awkward to get there. But the complex emotional web that is a family is really getting explored now. I loved that Sota - the person who symbolically helped Tsubasa out of the dream - ended up being sucked in to the saccharine promise of a blank slate start. Particularly the way they got there by showing him the fantasy of a world where his mom actually listened to him. Ignoring that he has to bury all the reality of the trauma she caused to just accept it like nothing was wrong here. And the way it flipped Tsubasa into the only person not buying into the fantasy anymore. I also like the implication that everyone now knows the truth but is running from it.
Also, man, the complexity of having natural jealousy over your son whom you father has higher expectations of, despite the fact that your father is also being too harsh on your son. And now seemingly he's the one purposely keeping everyone asleep due to his own inadequacy. Not sure if this gets to the root of how the initial accident happened yet, but they have me reeled back in.
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Akane-banashi 81 & 82
SpoilerStill a lot of setting the stage for a new arc, which is totally fine because we just finished a pretty big arc. Really enjoyed the way they characterized Chocho's rakugo, and love the concept of him teaching Akane and the long-faced, thin-eyed dude. Think you can feel the Nin match. It really fits with Akane's explosive style. Should be a fun training arc.
Also, I'm consistently impressed by the art. It's like...it's not like there's a lot of cool dynamics or page layouts(there are,) but there's something about the simple way they're able to show so much emotion in the way they draw faces and body language. There was a shot of Akane's face that wasn't even like a big focus of the page, but it just struck me how gorgeous it was.
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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.
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21 minutes ago, Anelle said:I have read so. much. manga. lately. I'd love (but also be scared to see) a report on how much time I've spent on MangaDex and the couple of official apps I use!
Been keeping up with the usual favs on Jump, One Piece, My Hero Academia, Jujutsu Kaisen, Spy x Family, Akane-banashi, Chainsaw Man
I finally gave the Ichinose Family a go and binged that and have been keeping current with it!
I fell behind on Sakamoto Days around this time last year, so I need to catch up on a year's worth of that. I got a few chapters of Gokurakugai and Wild Strawberry to read as well. I never finished chapter 1 of Shojo Null so I'll just start that back over and see how I like it. Been reading Kagurabachi as it comes out, other than that I don't think there's anything on there I'm actively wanting to keep up with atm! I'm just now realizing that I never finished PPPPPP and I got like 13 chapters of that left, so I guess I'll round that out too even though it clearly lost me pretty hard there.
I think the big thing I'm wanting to tackle Jump-wise is to finally start Kaiju No 8! I've been interested for ages but it seems like every time I remembered that I need to start it up I was in the middle of something else I'd started to read.
I highly recommend Kaiju No. 8! It's a bit of an unsung juggernaut right now.
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Just caught up on Sakamoto Days
SpoilerI really enjoyed the Heisuke/Kamihate fight. I think there's something poetic about the ending. Part of Heisuke's block was that he couldn't commit to a kill shot, which held him back from committing to any meaningful shot. But if he did commit, he'd live with the guilt of having killed someone. He didn't physically win this fight, but he philosophically won by exposing Kamihate's face which is their personal loss as a sniper. At the same time, he committed to the shot, and fate rewarded him with a victory that didn't require him to have blood on his hands. And now he can move past the mental block and be the best sniper he's meant to be.
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20 hours ago, Tassifox said:OUR FAVORITE FAMILY IS BACK UP ON THE ANIME FINALLY!
Ep 1 new season
I could not stop laughing at Yor's expression from the pain of the gunshot wound.
I can't wait for that to turn into a gif because that expression is such a fucking MOOD.
Nightfall being totally clueless about why Yor couldn't sit down or thinking she was mad at him. I mean yes, her expression did look more mad than in pain. But you think being a super smart spy that he is that he would start putting 2+2 that there was some sort of reason Yor refused to sit down in the places they went to on their date. lol Oh well, made great material for the episode. And Anya being the glue holding it together as always is just too cute.SpoilerIt's definitely the sort of thing that takes some stretching of the imagination, but it's worth it for the joke. That said, I think the point they try to paint through the series is that Loid actually does care for Yor, and because of that he lets his guard down around her and doesn't think straight. When she seems upset, rather than rationally thinking it through, he's both worried about the mission AND having somehow upset Yor, and having to deal with that more personal fear throws his brain out the window.
I loved this episode. Great way to come back, and I remember these chapters being a hoot to read in the manga. I really can't get over how much the anime amplifies everything with little touches. Anya's faces in this were priceless as usual, and the bit at the end where she learned how to make a peanut bomb by reading the dude's thoughts was so ridiculous it was brilliant.
I'm also into the new OP. Both the music and the visuals were great. Spy x Family is 3/3 so far in that department.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I saw that and considered doing the same because I never finished the anime proper.
Akane-banashi #76 and 77
SpoilerA pretty lovely pair of chapters that really brought this whole festival arc around. It was nice to see some emotion and development from the other apprentices removed from Akane. And you can still feel how heartbroken Akane is, but she's got her spark back and it's got me excited for whatever comes next.
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Still gotta catch up on some of the rest from both this and last week, but I really liked Tenmaku Cinema:
SpoilerIt's hard to tell whether it ended short because a lack of success or if it was always intended to be this short. I had been thinking once this movie is made, there's not as much mileage on them making movies after being accepted. So as a short story, I really enjoyed it. I feel like it could make a good film/OVA, so I hope the short run was intended.
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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.
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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 played through and beat this bad boy after all these years. I always spent more time with Warped, but I've played the first two worlds tons of times and never got farther. I loved this game. It polishes everything that worked with the first game, and fixes everything that didn't. The improved movement and jump options add a lot more depth and flexibility, and thank god for both the ability to save whenever and game over not erasing your progress. It makes trying to go for 100% or playing levels over and over less stressful. Level design was great, enjoy the variety and challenge. How to get gems could be a bit more obvious or better telegraphed(I had to look up a couple), but completing each task was incredibly satisfying. Great game, holds up in my opinion even without the remakes. I'm excited for Warped. Though we'll probably go back to finishing Year of the Dragon first.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.
Biggest flaw for me, as I already mentioned, is the lack of a true party dynamic. It just feels like the structure is right there and they don't bite on it. While I like getting different characters to join your adventures, they feel useless in battle and just there for dressing. And as much as I enjoy the Torgal mechanics, I feel it never expands, and the fact he gets a power up later that gives him special moves that you have no control over(and that to my knowledge I've never ever seen?) is dull. This is made worse by combat getting a bit repetitive by the latter half.
And yeah, the gear is disappointing. I like working for the final weapon, but I never had any incentive to experiment with accessories. Definitely feels like the crafting mechanic is useless in the vanilla game which makes the equipment feel a little more useless by proxy. I think a lot of this would be relieved by having a party that you maintain and gear up, where you'd have more characters to play around with and actually have a use for all the gear you can upgrade, since half the time you have two or three weapons/armor to craft at a single moment and there's no incentive to craft the lower quality ones. Especially since resources are easy to come by.
While I generally enjoyed doing all the end-game quests and the closing out NPC storylines, it feels like there aren't a lot of tangible rewards for doing so. With no customizable magic and the gear being a bit useless, maybe something like some quest/hunt-specific special attacks would have been cool, but as is the best you get is the final weapon quest lines. Which is enjoyable. But it would be nice to have more tangible incentive to actually explore such a gorgeous world.
Also, the soundtrack is mostly incredible. Which is why it's a shame the game does an awful job of showcasing it outside of cutscenes and boss battles. A lot of the field and town music is wonderful, which is why it's infinitely annoying that during any conversations, the game turns the music volume down. There are some tracks you don't get to fully enjoy because of this, since otherwise you're just blazing through an area and barely get to hear 30 seconds of it unless you decide to linger purposefully. This is probably a nitpick, but being that the music is usually one of the best parts of a Final Fantasy, not being able to soak a lot of it in naturally is a shame.
There's also the issue of a lot of the less important NPCs looking the same(the men have like 2 stock faces that are barely changed from each other), and a bit more variety in quests could have been nice(maybe a mini-game or two), but the latter part is definitely a nitpick.
All that said, I still really enjoyed this game. Presentation and storywise it's pretty much a 10 out of 10. Well, ok, the story might not be a 10/10 but I was into it the whole way. It helps that the characters were really lovable with some excellent voice acting. The best and pretty enjoyable rewards from the sidequests was getting more characterization and intimate moments with the side characters. The graphics, lazy NPC modeling aside, are nothing short of stunning. Like the environments just had me pausing at times to just look at it all and appreciate it. The water in the Velkroy is pure beauty. And my god, the cutscenes. Yes, there's maybe too many or at least are broken up in an annoying way for some portions, but they were almost always a treat. Especially the ones involving Eikons. Some of the set pieces during boss fights just had my jaw agape as I took it all in.
And I already said it, but I loved the soundtrack. It has some "epic movie/video game" tropes that made some moments less memorable where a notable melody or rhythm could have served well. And like I said, the general mixing and implementation of the soundtrack makes it so some of the more memorable tracks don't get to shine. But this doesn't stop some of the best pieces from truly shining, especially during cutscenes and battles. I loved the re-imaginings of the FF Theme and the Prologue, making them feel more integral to the themes rather than just traditional pieces that need to be fit in somewhere. Masayoshi Soken does amazing work and when Square let him shine, he's fucking blinding. Overall, while I don't think he's topped Nobuo Uematsu as far as pure memorability, I think if Soken is the main composer going forward, then the series is in good hands.
And then the combat. Well, like I said, it gets a bit repetitive and I think if they weren't gonna commit to a couple more RPG elements than they should have leaned a bit harder into the action. But for the first half of the game, the combo system is really fun and refreshing. And while I never felt I needed to get Eikon abilities outside Phoenix/Ifrit and Garuda, once I started unlocking the super powerful moves and played around with the techniques a bit, I found myself getting a setup that was really fun to play and also hella engaging to rack up damage and stagger. I feel you take what's here, add more versatility to Torgal and give some semblance of control and management of party members, and you have an excellent ARPG combat system. As is, if you put the effort in, you can have a lot of fun with this system, but again, you're not really incentivized to do so. Particularly with the enemies being such damage sponges.
The boss battles could be better in some senses, as the big ones half the time feel more like glorified cutscenes since death is kind of meaningless and rare. But considering the shortcomings of the battle system, I found myself enjoying the change of pace for these battles. Though fights as Ifrit that weren't purely focused on set piece like moments felt less freeing than most fighting as Clive.
This is already way bigger than I planned for it to be, but I also want to give a special shout to the hunts. Not all of them were amazing, but they added some incentive to explore, and some of the S Rank hunts were the most thrilling and memorable fights of the whole thing(looking at you, Svarog).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
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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.
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Chainsaw Man #141
SpoilerYeah, these kinds of chapters are where Fujimoto and this series really shines. It says so much with absolutely no dialogue. And while the lack of pages sucks, I find myself sucked into the pages without dialogue so much that I end up taking more time analyzing expressions and body language. Great stuff.
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.
[Manga Chat]
in Anime & Manga
Posted
I realized I've been behind like 4 chapters for Show-ha Shoten!, so I fixed that over the last couple days. And damn, what a worthy catch up.
The chapters about Broken Glass Slipper were great. The way they framed them breaking through the grass ceiling really made this seem like a moment where someone is revealing their true power level. Such good narrative framing with some awesome art to go with it. Saeda's facial expressions are incredible. And this was one of the routines that actually felt pretty funny. Seeing them break the mold with almost universal 90 scores was such a great moment that makes the performance feel special, even if they're gonna lose(they almost certainly will).
Speaking of expressions, this manga does such a good job with drawing unique faces and silhouettes for each character. The art is actually really slick and sells so much of what's going on.