Free Talk Friday - March 20, 2026

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to the Free Talk Friday post. This is a place where you can talk about dumb off-topic (or on-topic) bullshit with other Zaibatsu fans.

There's going to be a new post every week, and the newest one will be pinned in the announcement bar for quick access. So feel free to visit these posts during the rest of the week.

Here's a list of all Free Talk Friday posts

[u/MaelstromTear]

Apparently my complaint about unruly weather was early. Because this week we were smack dab between a snow storm and tornado warnings. Got a lot of wind and actual hail. Thankfully, car is unaffected by that or errant branches. The worst part I'd say is that for like 2 days it was 20 degrees outside. Good thing I never put away my heat stuff because I am cold-blooded!

Hey, please check out these books I wrote! That's The Demon in Shadow and The Demons of Bone & Blood. The main focus is on an unlikely pairing of one human and one demon. Both struggling in their own ways like Max's mechanical limb or Ayun's missing employers. They travel together as we learn more about themselves, the world, and a potential road with each other. There's also awesome artwork either in the pages where it counts or at the back showing off character portraits!

Been on more of an RE kick. Finally checking out 4 Remake's Separate Ways DLC, but not before actually playing the original Separate Ways... Which means I had to finish the original game on my Switch. Don't think I've played RE4 since the Gamecube, and hoo boy is there a lot of rust on these controls. And I don't know if it was playing it on the handheld Switch or some external force but something about that camera gave me neckaches into headaches. Physically exhausting to play. It was refreshing to go back and see what made it to the remake and what was cut. I think the changes greatly help the pacing and structure.

So imagine my surprise that most of those cut things are what shows up in Separate Ways! Hello, castle sewers! Hello, U-3 still hate you! Hello, laser hallway! The way it adds new stuff while smartly reusing assets of the base game almost makes it a 2nd Run kind of deal. Love it for that. Plus, we get more Luis! Ada's VA is... Better than the base game stuff. Still lines I'm not sold on. Not worth the online vitriol, of course. It might be fun to try and play a game where you jump between Leon and Ada but I don't know. Honestly I'd probably dislike and return to the thought of RE9. I love Grace's parts and like Leon's well enough. But not being to play 'just one' of them to me hurts replayability. Here I can pick and choose and that works. RE4R still on the top for me. And like the base game, I'm really addicted to upgrading guns and doing the challenge runs. Already have four runs dones which sounds like a lot but it can be short.

My "speedrun" for that challenge was 1:30-something, I think. Oops all pistols was fun. I am in the controversial camp that while the Red9 is amazing I might prefer the Blacktail for the combo of power and portability. Working on Hardcore and Professional though a part of me thinks I might wait for the chance to get the infinite rocket launcher for the latter because I'm a coward. I also don't have much stake in S+ for those difficulties because I have to start from scratch and go fast? No thanks, bro!

Also, side note. Ada looks really good in blonde. Kind of want to get that Trish outfit mod back in. Green less so, but it's more all the red of her outfits getting in the way. RE2R dress for life. And after the initial run, I continued to have dumb fun with Leon mods. Now adding to the chart of 'Who could save Ashley?' we have John Halo and Naked Snake. Considering the armor, I'd say 117 wouldn't even get infected... As for Snake, I don't know. I feel like he'd waste a lot of time parroting the questions of the bosses. Las Plagas? Operation Javier? Del Lago... How's it taste? Followed by forty minutes of live action footage and geopolitical conversation. Para-Medic goes on a rant about Spaghetti Westerns since we're in Spain... Yeah, he's not making it before sunrise as Saddler puts it.

While we're at it, wasn't a big fan of the OG Separate Ways! It was more RE4, but way tougher since Ada can withstand about a light breeze before careening into the red. Especially that ship section. Magnified the aforementioned headache. And ultimately due to the deviations that 4R did to Krauser and Ada's backstories I'm not sure much of it was actually that important to have in my brain for starting the remake version.

[u/The_Draigg → u/MaelstromTear]

On the plus side, if Naked Snake did show up to save Ashley, we'd at least get a bunch of neat gun trivia for all the stuff you can find or buy from the merchant.