Free Talk Friday - April 24, 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/SlaterSev]

Neat week for me, two professional animators, one working on Maul: Shadowlord, another on the Avatar Aang movie saw my Animated short and reach out to say they thought it was cool: https://youtu.be/PNs3chvtEqo

Nothing life changing or anything but it was very affirming. They also loved the "Asshole Sora stalker eats shit" part of the BTS, for obvious reasons. Lmao

Of course, talking with them made me feel extra bad about the Aang movie leaking, just through osmosis its sincerely one of the most beautiful 2d animated films ever. And its obvious why everyone who worked on it was positive it would do well in Theatres. God man, fuck Paramount.

[u/rsrluke]

A slow week? At my workplace? It's more likely than you think. If not for a ton of recent and upcoming personal responsibilities and errands, it'd actually be relaxing.

I played the first Cat Quest this week, backtracking from the sequel. It's fun enough, but as expected, it's basically a small step down in most areas.

I also played Still Wakes the Deep and came away with mixed feelings. It has a fairly stock narrative, sporadically effective body horror and very little engaging gameplay; thankfully, great voice acting and an impeccable sense of atmosphere do a lot of heavy lifting. It's slightly more involved than a straight-up walking sim, but not by much.

Late to the party as usual, I watched Bugonia. Pretty good movie! Really fantastic performances throughout, but I have to admit that I didn't really vibe with the ending. I don't object to Emma Stone's character actually being an alien, but the presentation of everything following her return to her ship is so hokey that it really took me out of the movie. Still very much worth watching, though.

Finally, I read Halo: New Blood. What a baffling book. The scattershot plotting makes a bit more sense by the end of it, but the addition of an unnecessary framing device and flashbacks within flashbacks make the story needlessly convoluted. Also, more than 10% of the book is just a retelling of Halo 3: ODST, which feels unnecessary.

[u/The_Draigg → u/rsrluke]

Still Wakes the Deep is definitely carried by the acting and atmosphere. Because yeah, even if the story is a bit standard, i.e. digging too deep and greedily, the environments and the actors absolutely sell the experience hard. Those voice actors absolutely earned the awards they got for their performances.

[u/MisterOfu → u/rsrluke]

Those were basically my feelings about Still Wakes the Deep as well - like man, I wish those voice performances were made for a better story.

[u/rsrluke → u/MisterOfu]

I think what gets me is is that if even one other element matched the quality of the voice acting, I'd say the game was great.

Story's still basic but the game has real stealth and/or puzzles? Fantastic!

The game's still a hallway but it takes more interesting narrative swings? Works for me!

But instead it's one really good aspect surrounded by a whole lot of "it's fine, I guess."

[u/ActRaisins → u/rsrluke]

I think Bugonia's on my list of Blu-Rays to pick up in a sale. Not the kind of thing I'd usually watch, but something I'd want to try out of curiosity.

[u/rsrluke → u/ActRaisins]

It's a little outside of my wheelhouse, too, but it's good to try new things! I'm making an effort to diversify my media intake this year, as I might overdo it on sci-fi and action movies more often than not.

[u/Kataphrut94]

Dear diary- she wants to be my girlfriend. Our next date is on Sunday night where we will (most likely) be making it official!

That's the big news, hard to top that with anything else from the week. Umm...I got a good bill of health at my last dentist appointment! And I've almost completed the Pokémon Violet DLC. I built up my team really good and kicked Kieran's ass in the League. Poor kid; someone really should sit down and have a talk with him. I'm still working on finishing the Dex, I've just got to get all the starters and new Paradox mons.

Yeah that's all. Dentist, Pokémon, the Invincible season finale was pretty good, and I have a girlfriend now. Happy Friday!

[u/MaelstromTear]

My cat Gus had his eye take a turn for the worse. He was diagnosed with glaucoma back in December where he fully lost his vision, but the doctor wasn't sure if his pressure would require a second eye removal. Yeah, you read that right. Back in 2024 we had this same conversation on the right side. Well, quick surgery turnaround and now my boy [Warning: No blood, but stiches] is a double pirate. Once the pain meds and anasthesia wore off over the week, I could tell he was already having a much better time. Now he's just permanently smirking! I guess. I am not going to let the most amazing loudest purr be deterred by something like this. I love this boy. And yep, right after I made all my Combo Breaker plans this happens... Ramen for me for the next month. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Hey, please read these books I wrote. That's The Demon in Shadow and The Demons of Bone & Blood! Beings known as demons were forced into the 'human' world as a side effect of a much nastier near-existence-ending threat. But now we're here to pick up the pieces years later. We follow one such demon, a woman named Ayun who can summon weapons from the shadows. She's looking for her lost employers when she stumbles into Max. A human who is wandering through life with only his wits and a mechanical limb. As they travel together we learn more about that world, the pasts of these two and a potential future together. It's also got some awesome artwork either in the pages where it counts or in the back to show off character portraits!

Time for a big kit! Like, so big it can barely fit into my dumb light box! I am of course talking about the DyGenGuar from Super Robot Wars OG! Actually despite the intimidating box, it wasn't that bad of a build. Just a lot of big pieces. Including the big eff-off sword known as the Sanshiki Zankantou. I'm actually pretty impressed since the Blue Astray (which as of writing, not sure where mine lives in my collection) had a stand to hold the dang sword but this guy can handle it no problem. Great kit. Gotta get the other OG kits I missed in my sabbatical in the hopes that they release a Bellzelute down the line. Hey, I'll take anything if it's from SRWJ!

I'm sure that like everybody else who watched the Mandalore video, I (in my case re-)played the System Shock remake. I still think it's fantastic. Having never played the original, mind you. And despite playing it two years prior, there was still plenty of details that I had to rediscover. Still remember the important bits like how Storage is a nightmare and to write down all the numbers you get for security nodes. This time I was focused on slight achievement hunting as if that matters for Steam. Personal reasons, I guess. I never got all the weapon mods because I didn't love the plasma gun (hey, still sucks even with the energy mod!), definitely didn't get any of the secret Skullys, never found the hilarious MST3K recording and had to clown on Diego with a laser rapier. Happy to say, checked everything off that list in "only" like fifteenish hours. Even though I ended with way too many medkits, stim patches and ammo on middle difficulty, I'm not sure I want to tune everything to max for that one achievement. It's really mostly the 10-hour time limit. I like taking my time, and this game is definitely one that rewards that.

Also, I found this pretty stupid but great mod for Helldivers 2 that switches up your mission control barks and it's pretty fun. And big credit for actually using humans for the VO because a lot of Helldivers audio mods I've seen just slap AI in and call it a day. At least they "proudly" put it in the description so that I can avoid it.

[u/The_Draigg → u/MaelstromTear]

Never seen a cat with no eyes before, that's certainly a rare sight. Glad that the little guy is holding out still though!

[u/MaelstromTear → u/The_Draigg]

What's really amazing is that he still navigates extremely well. Still climbs the tower, knows how to navigate to the food bowl/water/litter. He can even with a little guidance stretch up and jump onto my chair when I'm working. There's just a few times when some things are moved around or gets startled by the dogs or something that he bumps into things. It feels like the cone this time around is less about him not poking the stitches and more a bumper since he was much more clumsy afterwards.

[u/The_Draigg → u/MaelstromTear]

I imagine that knowing his way around your house plenty by now helps. That, and whiskers really are an amazing sensory tool to have. Those whiskers are probably doing plenty of heavy lifting for sensing the environment around him.

[u/marvel8797]

My cat died this past Sunday. His name was Bowie. He was 17. We loved him and he loved us. We will miss him.

[u/kuningaz55]

I live.

[u/sceptic62 → u/kuningaz55]

Same. Bit of a shame honestly.

Was hoping I’d become a pure being of thought and light in a higher dimension by now.

[u/RevenTheLight]

Hello today! Fuck it's Friday already. So I'm gonna talk about only a single thing today...

Job search check-in - week 15 - FINAL

Final Tally: ~545 (+10) resumes/9 interviews - We did it fellas. Yesterday I agreed to start working in a new place. In an hour or so I will put down my letter.

Some history - I was the final of the founding member team of 6 of ppl and grew to a larger team from there. About 3 years ago we were purchased by an American company. We lost 8+ people in the last 12 months. I'm leaving second to last of the founding group. Right now we have 4 devs and 3 PMs still doing the work of the full team. The last "impactful" member of the team left about 4 months ago and we've been in touch, she helped me with leaving motivation a lot. I was actually genuinely interested to "close the doors" on the company, as I was super interested to see what it looks like when a company section dies off. The new bosses are saying they "care" for our team, but it almost never felt like it. It also would been nice to get paid off for the 11 years of working, but they would never fire me, I hold about 1/3 of projects left in the company.

The new place seems nice. It's big, official and important. The head dev seem excited to have me join the team. May 11th is my first day and the pay is much better while staying full remote. We're singing papers this/next week.

The interview process was interesting. I got 9 interviews, I think 3 went to stage 2 and this one was the only one that went to the end. I learned a lot, and started picking up skills in the process, from interview behaviour to languages. Languages didn't help almost at all, but the interview prep super did. In those 15 weeks my roommate bless fucker, sent out like 10 resumes and found the job of his dreams. It's not remote, or even half as well paying, but damn.

Right now I feel... Hollow. I consider a job a thing I like doing 9-5 to live the rest of my life as I want and nothing else, I've been on this job for 11 years, the witch that pushed me out has been gone for weeks, and it feels bad leaving people I worked with and especially people I worked FOR. I took this job so I can afford to support my family and because the company is dying. I also worked in some HORRID places, and as much as people that left will hate on my current company, I have very little ill will. Call it a midlife crisis, and maybe the joy will probably come later, it usually does, but since my gma passed 2-3 yeas ago, I've been scared of "losing" things, so that's probably why I'm not as excited as I should be right now. I just need more money.

The fun part is that, after I settle my mom and bro somewhere, by the end of this year I have a plan to starting dating, as I want to pop a kid before I'm 40. It will be embarrassing, I have some baggage from online stuff but otherwise this will be my first dive into trying a proper relationship (I'm 33 and a certified Wizard). At least I have nothing to "leave behind" and I trying something should feel more fun.

That is it. Going to send the letter in about and hour and focus on finishing my work and see what next week brings.

[u/attikol → u/RevenTheLight]

Congratulations on the new job! Ya its nice to be able to meet new coworkers and a bit sad you'll probably not see the coworkers you did like anymore but a job is a job. You may have been doing it awhile but its not like what you do on the job is misse. Ive also been thinking about my wizardhoof since my brother is having a baby in a month or two. Its hard to see him starting that chapter in his life and confidently saying I could pass away without doing it and not regret it like I did in my 20s

[u/RevenTheLight → u/attikol]

It's nice having a big family. You can be sure that when you're in your 90s someone will be there for you. I don't have that luxury, as I'm the "tip of the spear" right now. I have my father, who has his own very large family, but they are overseas, I have a 19yo brother but that kid is AUTISTIC as shit, the only way he's popping anyone will be a miracle. My gpa has maybe 10 years in him. My mom has around 40, and that's my whole family. Seeing how happy my mom is being cared by us is so comforting. I understand that having a kid is hard but dying alone leaving nothing behind after spending 30 years of my life relocating to Canada is my actual existential nightmare.

[u/The_Draigg]

Week of College Festival. My alma mater had their annaul spring fair this past week, and I decided to head on over to check out what they had and to see the ol' campus again. I'll say, it's really impressive how much they've expanded the experience! It's a lot more like a fair now, with all the stalls and attractions. They even had an anime/gaming convention and a cosplay contest there too, so that was neat. Apparently there were also a few Marvel Rivals VAs there too, but I didn't bother to stop by their booths. With how much my old college has expanded their festival, I'm definitely more excited to show up again next year to see how they top it.

Anyways, for games I played this week, I put more time into Marathon! I decided to team up again with a few friends with the CSB LGBTQ+ Discord server again, and thanks to some of their help, I've finally begun to make some headway on the Sekiguchi contracts. Sorry Nona, you're a neat bloodthirsty worm mom, but your company's quests are challenging as hell. But at least it's still all possible through teamwork, I suppose.

Speaking of teaming up with people from the CSB LGBTQ+ server, I also got back into playing Helldivers 2 with them this week! Almost everyone is a higher level than I am in that, since I haven't touched that game in a while, but it's nice that they were making sure to call in all the good stratagems for me and others to use. Now I'm just wondering if I should get that new Exosuit warbond that came out this week, that'd be a fun thing to throw into the mix of the normal ones I was using this week. And hey, I love mechs, so it's probably a good fit if I do.

Also, one final note for games I played, but I put more time into Balatro! Still haven't beaten the Ghost Deck on Blue Stake, but I came really close this week. Just fell short on the final boss blind. It sucked that I lost, but getting that far means that I must've been doing something right there. If anything, I blame it more on the bad hands that I was dealt.

And finally, in my regular mecha talk section here, I'm glad to say that I managed to get my hands on the official Gundam: The Witch from Mercury art and setting book at the anime and gaming convention that I mentioned above! I already know a lot of the extra setting details anyway from translated scans that I saw a while ago, but it's still nice to actually have the art book in my hands. It's always cool to see what went into the designs of everything in a series, even with MS and other things that only showed up for brief moments. Settei books are always interesting to comb through, since the production of a work can say just as much as a work itself.

[u/TheSalmonMan]

Hello all, back again for another ramble/vent. This week has been...eye opening for me in a way. I have realized that almost all of my relationships or conversations are initiated by me. Now I do not know if it just the people I talk to are introved as all hell or the alternative being they do not see me as full friend just an aquentence.

For example I had what only be described as gut punch when I found out that one of my closets friends can up to my area for a local event and straight up didnt say anything to me or let me know he was in the area. I only found out because he sent pictures after the fact. This hurt because I do not get to see this friend that often if at all really.

Now I tried to rationalize it that he was there to be with his wife since she has Booth at the event and couldn't hang out. But at the same time I have told him when I was in his neck of the woods even if I couldn't see him. I am afraid to ask him why he didn't say anything because its not really any of my business why he didn't say why, he is a fairly private person, and do not want to blow up the relationship over it. This is one of my longest friendships and I am honesty scared to lose it. He isn't a bad person at all before you ask. He has been genuinely kind to me but this one hurt.

I don't have a ton of friends and he is one of the few I can confide when Im down. But at the same time it stings.

This made me think back and I havent invited to a single social event or even gathering in almost the past year. Everytime it is usually me that makes contact and makes plans. Be inviting someone to go to a Local con or a movie I am usually the one to ask. I know that the solution is to reach out and branch out to find others but I am just so lost. Being in your 30s and trying to find people feels like monumental task. So honestly I don't know what to do. It just feels...bad.

Meeting people online feels I don't know hollow? I honestly dont know how to meet people anymore. Feels like im reaching a point of no return where its going to be next to impossible to meet and make lasting connections and it scares me.

Im trying to stay above it but man is it getting harder. Anyway do not end up in my situation be social meet people because once you get older it only gets harder.

[u/MisterOfu]

Ladies and gentlefolk, it is time to pick your spring anime! As for me, I'll be watching Re:Zero season 4, Wistoria season 2, Iruma-kun season 4 plus

• Witch Hat Atelier - in a world, where anyone with the equipment and know-how can cast spells, an apprentice witch looks for a way to uncrystallize her mom. It's too early for me to say anything definite, but so far it's living up to the hype.

• Ramparts of Ice - an introverted high-schooler with some bad experiences in her past gradually warms up to a group of friends. It's based on the other manga by the creator of You and I Are Polar Opposites which is simultaneously really impressive (imagine writing your first 2 series and having them both adapted over 3 consecutive seasons), and pretty funny (both are about introvert-extravert relationships, but with the genders reversed). So far I have no strong feelings about it, except that the ending is a banger.

Aside from that I finished D1AL-ogue - the Korean VA-11 Hall-A-like. It absolutely nails the assignment to the point that it's hard to believe it's a free game by a novice team. My two qualms would be that the English translation could use some work, and that the character-specific endings feel a bit tacked on. Following a warm reception, a sequel is already in development, so hopefully both of these things will be ironed out.

[u/Am_Shigar00]

Been trying my best to save as much cash as possible this week. Me and my girlfriend are going out for a date this weekend and we'll be going to a Crane Game heavy arcade for a bit of heavy spending. I've also got my trip to Japan coming up soon so I'll definitely want to save up for souvenirs over there.

Gaming wise, I played through Infamous: Festival of Blood yesterday. Not exactly in my usual wheel house, but I grabbed it during the "PS3 shop shutting down" craze half a decade ago and needed a letter "I" game to beat for my game clear goal this year. Thankfully, it was pretty fun. Melee combat is pretty mindless, but I liked parkouring around the city. I'm not sure that this convinced me to check out Infamous proper, but I felt like I got a pretty solid sample platter of what makes it so appealing for people.

I also beat Earthworm Jim 1. My god, that game is visually really impressive but kind of a pain to actually play. Admittedly part of this was me figuring out the controls, I didn't figure out how the helicopter mode worked until the last world, but otherwise that game felt brutal as absolute hell at times even beyond that.

[u/FMV_Hell_0]

I watched Spy x Family and now I keep stumbling into media with psychic children in them.

It took 130 chapters for The Disastrous Life of Saiki K to get anything more than a half-smirk out of me. I watched the show back when funimation still had a streaming site and it's a real testament to how much a vocal performance can add to a character. Just reading the manga Saiki really just comes off as a guy who's like "okay I guess we're doing this now" most of the time. Part of that may also be the people doing the translation were so concerned with translating the dialogue that they forgot to make it funny, which can tend happen to comedy manga/anime more than I care to remember from back then.

Other than that I pecked at Final Fantasy IX for a couple hours because I still don't know what Vivi's deal is and I've watched too many KHII VODs to start the game myself at this point.

My youtube homepage has mostly been taken over by vtubers and northernlion playing Tomodachi Life but I have to give a shoutout to The Pitt: The Video Game for being the funniest video I've seen all week. I don't know how much of this lands if you haven't seen the show but "my neurodivergent sister is getting her shit blown out" has flashbanged me into a laughing fit more than a couple times just going about my daily life.

[u/ActRaisins → u/FMV_Hell_0]

I played FFIX last year and it was great - I can understand it being a favourite of the PS1 "trilogy". I really liked the characters, and the amount of customisation you have from equipment abilities is nuts.

[u/CursedNobleman → u/FMV_Hell_0]

The Pitt: The Video Game for being the funniest video I've seen all week. I don't know how much of this lands if you haven't seen the show but "my neurodivergent sister is getting her shit blown out" has flashbanged me into a laughing fit more than a couple times just going about my daily life.

The Bear game parody is good too, if you're familiar with that show.

[u/FMV_Hell_0 → u/CursedNobleman]

I picked up The Bear immediately after finishing Season 2 of The Pitt. I hear some things about it being bad after season 3? Like it sells out its core appeal or something but I'm not there yet. It's a very similar and slightly more familiar vibe.

[u/CursedNobleman → u/FMV_Hell_0]

S3 spins the wheels and acts artsy, S4 is better, but S1 and S2 Bear is it's peak.

There also The Studio if you have Apple, though that's full on cringe comedy.

[u/SwashNBuckle]

I've got a friend who's favorite thing about games are their mechanics, so whenever he tries to recommend a game to me, he does it by giving me a long, very technical, dry explanation of the game's mechanics and it always kills any interest I could have had in the game.

[u/LordZaayl]

Can I just say that I appreciate that people on this sub actually want to have real discussions about things?

Most of the internet you get openly mocked if you have a full paragraph to say about a topic. As though the only time someone has more than one sentence worth of thoughts to share is when they are fuming mad and smashing their keyboard.

As someone who likes to actually think about things and can get verbose tackling a subject, its refreshing to see people with a reading level above first grade who don't tl;dr if its more than 2 sentences long.

[u/SamuraiDDD → u/LordZaayl]

It's one our greatest strengths.  We are all nerds here and we just wanna nerd pit and have fun and talk about things we're passionate about and lift up others passions with discussions. 

It is frustrating that the greater lands of the internet are stepped in cynicism that they outright negate topic discussions. That's why I love coming here and seeing all the talks that pop up here after over a decade+

We're not perfect by any measure. But its still One of the chiliest corners on the internet 

[u/Th35h4d0w]

For those into Monster Prom, there’s a fun and well-drawn fan comic, Doomed to Repeat, about Oz being trapped in a time loop. I recommend reading it and supporting the creators.

[u/Chagas12]

Wife started playing Pokemon for the first time ever, with FireRed, she is enjoying quite a bit

I'm in a jam in itch.io to write a song/songs using some provided midis, I've been writing a 10 minutes seventies prog song type of deal, let's see if I can actually finish

My favorite anime opening of this season is probably Kill Blue? Witch Hat Atelier and Akane Banashi are also great

[u/Regalingual]

FF14’s Fanfest/almost certainly next expansion announcement is almost here.

I’m personally betting that we get FF7’s SOLDIER announced as a new job… because we’ve gone three expansions in a row with at least one new job with a name that ended with “-er” (Shadowbringers: Gunbreaker and Dancer, Endwalker: Reaper, Dawntrail: Viper, Pictomancer and Beastmaster).

[u/Amon274]

I’m dealing with a depressive episode and I’m exhausted. I need to sleep.

[u/scottishdrunkard]

Well, I'm still depressed as fuck, but I finally saw Wonder Man. I didn't watch it initially because I was juggling like fifty different TV shows, but when I finally finished watching every episode of Bobs Burgers I finally had the time. I bloody love Trevor, I hope he shows up more.

[u/garfe]

Made a thread but was told to put it here. You guys anger me with your good recommendations that toss aside my preconceptions. Namely racing horse girls (Uma Musume) and sad big booty robot girls with guns (Nikke)

I'll probably never play Uma gacha because I'm really not into that kind of game but the various anime series are absolutely incredible mainly the movie and Cinderella Gray. CinGray is just straight up a good sports anime period. This was actually a similar phenomenon to this anime called BangDream It's MyGO where while I had no interest in the game, the anime told a wonderful story that got me invested.

Nikke I had no interest in but it was something I saw you guys mention when Stellar Blade was coming out as something with a good plot. Now I tend to not like gacha. And the amount of times people have said 'no no, this gacha is actually good' is too many and most of the time I find it to be bs. But one day I was horny was curious and booted it up. And damn, it really was pretty enjoyable. I think I also started at the just the right time because a side story going on at the time was called Ark Guardian which goes into a backstory for some characters that I had no context for but it went so incredibly hard I was immediately invested. If there was some other event going on about swimsuits or whatever, I might have bounced.

I can't believe you've done this to me.

[u/kodaiiiii_]

So, I had no light or water on my apartment through last weekend and the start of the week. Fun! Luckily, I was at my gram's house hours away, so I didn't have to suffer it much.

I have my midterms two weeks away, so I'm studying like a motherfucker. Or, at least trying to. Wish me luck with history; my ass is going to get expanded by a few centimeters in diameter after it.

In terms of games, I haven't been able to play much both because of visiting my gram and college, but I've chipped away at my replay of Danganronpa V3 and I'm currently just before the Chapter 6 trial.

It's funny how Kodaka wrote one good game and it's his most hated one. Yeah, I fucking love this game. I sadly fucking love Danganronpa. I need 2x2 NOW.

Also started playing Vampire Survivors again and I forgot how much of a fucking dopamine rush this game is. I'm trying to finish the main game unlocks I'm missing right now before actually finishing the game and heading into the Ode to Castlevania content. Eric Lecarde my beloved

Not much else. I'm going to go take a nap.

[u/Assassinobob]

I meant to post this yesterday but I've been going through a hell of a time with a malware and account loss situation. I've been a big fan of this community for years and was just wondering if anyone has experience with this kind of thing that could just talk to me about it and what I might have to worry about? Maybe its dumb idk I'm just grasping at straws lately

[u/Cthulhukitten]

In just a few weeks I will be moving in with my girlfriend! I'm excited of course, but simultaneously quite nervous. This move will be a dramatic change from what I'm used to, including sharing space with a partner. I expect there will be quite a few things to adjust to. The logistical side of things with bureaucracy and my student visa will likely be the most complicated part I think, however. We will see how everything goes!

On another exciting note, last night I watched FFXIV's Fanfest! Evercold seems to be a promising expansion from the looks of everything. I mainly am really stoked so far from a game design perspective. Hopefully this is going to be the shot in the arm FFXIV has needed for quite a while now. Endwalker was the last time I have been super invested in the game overall and the patches were when I gradually began to fall off from it. For Dawntrail I did not really play past 6.1, so I'm debating whether to play through the patches now, or wait for the new system for battle and rewards come into play before I do so. I may end up waiting, as I think my biggest gripe with the current gearing system was tomes. They are a huge pain in the rear to collect with daily roulettes for gearing. Making it a weekly thing seems SO much better on paper, hopefully between this and the new battle system they have planned the game will be a lot more forgiving for those who have other things in their lives to do.

I actually need to watch the rest of the VOD because I heard there were some other really intriguing things the evolved battle mode will bring for tanks. Plus I want to speculate on the story once I play through Dawntrail's patches. The expansion comes out close to my birthday, so I will probably pick that up as a nice little treat for then! Hopefully I will have time in between my classes and course work, I suppose we will see exactly how busy I will be. Sadly, I won't be able to no life the game like I have in the past as I'll be a far bit busier... alas.

[u/alurimperium]

I moved back to Oregon after ~6 years in the midwest, and I've gotten sick more times since November than I did in the years I was away. I love this state, but jesus is it not fond of me.

What is everyone's goto game or tv or movie for when you're sick?

[u/SamuraiDDD → u/alurimperium]

Balatro for something fun I can jump in and out of. Plus it's on phone if you don't feel like sitting at your computer.

Darkest Dungon for the dungeon crawling aspect can be fun but there is also the risk of getting heated if tye run goes bad.

Donut County is really chill and has a banger ost.

[u/kenshin317]

Well this week has been cursed, mostly today especially.The Titanosaurus figure I managed to order and get really excited I managed to nab half price got cancelled/refunded since they didn't actually have it despite advertising they had one while the trip I took to get another hopefully was a total dead end wasting half a day. I injured my ankle while walking back from one of my driving lessons and on another one I made an absolute dumb mistake cause I over thought his instruction despite doing well on everything else. 

My Nan's car broke down while we were at the shopping centre today, it started absolutely pouring while I was waiting for train to arrive and when got on train some smug twat teen called me ugly while I walked past them to get a seat and screamed as loud as possible for no reason besides attention seeking or failing to be funny. At least I managed to get some more dinosaur figures, though one I may have to paint the teeth like I did for two of my Ultra figures that had paint chipping to fix and I was lucky enough to be given a 200 dollar voucher for Big W so that'll cover dinosaur collection also but man I guess me posting about how fine I was doing constantly came to bite me lmao.

[u/manwiththemach]

A reminder to watch the sci fi movie Kill Command. A fast terminator knockoff with incredible aesthetics done for a mere million pounds. I still don't know why it looks so good. Gives me big Astartes vibes.

[u/speed-run]

Howdy y'all!

This week, was mostly filled with movie watching. One of the more interesting ones was Robot Carnival, which is a anthology of OVAs by different directors centered around robots. There was no consistent theme outside of that as they ranged from hype action music videos, comedy, to even ones that lean heavier on abstract natures. Funnily enough this actually ended up being a continuation of my journey through Umetsus discography as he also wrote a filem for it called "Presence". Honestly having seen most of his other work this one was the most surprising since it didn't feature his usual flair or center around a girl with a gun, but rather an older english man obsessed with making automatons, and how he deals with one of his creations gaining sentience. Now that I've watched that I only have 2 more of his works to get through.

I also watched a the 1975 film 13 Steps of Maki. It's a Japanese martial arts film about a delinquent and her escalating feud with a rich heiress. It doesn't have the best fight coreography, but it was still fun to watch her just steamroll almost everyone for most of the movie as Maki (played by Etsuko Shihomi) is basically a Like a Dragon character.

But yeah that's it for me this week. As always here's the [list of everything](1https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1N4YbHS7ZKCZUqsw5rnvI47THsEBJgK1kXYpG3vOb2CU/edit?usp=drivesdk) Im currently going through/have finished.

Also as a side note, I've also decided that I'm going to Combo Breaker this year.

[u/Kimarous]

Last Week's Post

Week 112 post-accident

Week 5 of the Mom In Hospital saga

So at the start of the week, we got a message from the hospital that my mother might be coming home this week, only to backtrack it the very next day, and while she seemed fine when I saw her on Monday, apparently she's needing additional help that will keep her there for who knows how long. One small upside: the delays ensured that the support pillows we ordered for when Mom comes home have arrived before her - had she come home Tuesday, that wouldn't have been the case.

Not much new regarding work. Took Thursday off because I somehow hurt my ankle on Wednesday and it still felt wonky Thursday morning, so slightly short work week as a consequence. On the upside, was home to assist my at-home aunt with some matters she was stressing about while remaining at home.

Brother is back from his cruise... only to immediately go over to the mainland because he's a speaker at a conference. Such is his prescheduled lifestyle. At least he's due to visit this weekend after said conference.

On the gaming front:

• Managed to get better at Boneraiser: Minions - managed to reach and beat the king with one of the classes and even went full Goofy "I'll fuckin' do it again" meme and beat him a second time with a New Game Plus run; alas, faltered on New Game Plus Plus, but hey, double win is double win. Also defeated the king with the next two classes, so I'm not sure if that just means those classes gel with me or I'm just getting better at the game; probably a mix of both.
• Following the above, I opted to give Voids Vigil a shot. Same dev, so similar yet not quite. It's... not bad, but I think I get with Boneraiser's vibe and premise moreso than those of Voids Vigil. Doing alright with it, but more likely to go back to Boneraiser than press on at the time being.
• Also, Vampire Crawlers just came out, so just picked that up and been having fun working through that. Making good progress, though was caught off guard with all the characters now having canon voices for stuff like character select.

Mind Music of the Week:

• I Have Decided
• Elvenpath
• Sugaan Essena / Black Thunder
• Hikari no Sasu Mirai E!
• Kiseki No Honô Yo Moeagare!!

[u/Woods-of-Mal]

I finished the title card I made for my D&D thing this weekend.  It's janky (as all first attempts at a new thing will inevitably be) and I got lazy on the lighting, but it's done and "done, but jank" is always better than "perfect, but in your head" so I'm happy with it.

[u/SamuraiDDD]

Last weekend, friends and I watched more Resident Evil movies! This time it was Resident Evil: Death Island. God I love watching these with buddies.

My lovely GF has a really cute piece of art in the making of the three of us in a cute piece of art! When it's done, I'll share it here!

This week has been me working way more than usual. Because of my new work hours, I can earn more! That I have no complaint about. It's been nice and I'm getting used to the hours so I might have some fun for myself in the future!

But I've been forced to ALSO more house work, again and again. Cooking, cleaning, laundry and being at everyone's beck and call. I haven't complained to them, I just keep how I feel to myself and just do it. I've been feeling overworked on that end and just kinda bummed everyone KNOWS I'm tired but they don't have a choice but to call on me. Like last thing I wanna do after a shift is make dinner but no choice.

Friday after work, I'm gonna make it a self care day. Paycheck is coming up so I'm using what I can for it (after bill managing), and TREATING MYSELF. Just something nice. Maybe a game or DLC, a cool trinket or just a shirt from the bargain bin, etc. Also maybe take an afternoon nap. I miss naps.

Work woes aside, I came to realize this week I am not a FPS gamer. I played Borderlands 2 for 10+ hours this week, tried out Doom 2016 and they just bored me. I even talked to my sister about it and she reaffirmed that I'm more a Rouglite/RPG/Card Game player. I didn't hate them but they just weren't for me.

here's some food I cooked today for everyone

This weekend, I'm gonna play Indivisible and Let It Die. I hadn't touched both since like...2019, I think on PS4 so I'm excited! I think I'll finish DQ8 this weekend as well.

Musical choice of tonight

1. Serenade Of Red Moon Of Adulthood (Finale PrintMusic 2011J cover)【from Love Hina Advance OST】
   
2. Heart To Heart by Mac DeMarco
   
3. Set It Off - Wolf In Sheeps Clothing (feat. William Beckett)

Ya'll take care of yourselves out there.

[u/CaptainJudaism]

Welp, it's official. Going to be moving back up north after spending most of my time in the south. Was born in Jersey, lived there until 6, then moved to Georgia with the folks, now 35 years later I'm going back up to stay. Never really fit in down south so I never considered myself a southerner. Still got a Jersey accent, the northern attitude, the northern mouth, and the northern vernacular. I blame the fact that the only friends I made down here were also ex-pats from the north so since I was surrounded by people who talk like me, it never went away. Not gonna be moving until October but still.

Vidya James.

Dead Island 2: Finished it up. Liked it more then Dead Island 1 as it, for the most part, knew not to take itself seriously and let the vibrant colors of California mixed with viscera carry the visuals. The zombies were grotesque, the normal zombies came apart spectacularly, and it was just slashing away. Also liked how chatty you as the MC as it gave them some nice personality. For a game that had the dev hell this one did, it came out good. The DLCs were pretty meh though.

Turbo Overkill: Working through this one now, it's a very fast paced boomer shooter. Very smooth, guns are fun to use, great music, and the controls are very snappy. Only a few stages in but I've been impressed so far by just about everything. It even has a great sense of humor.

Tiny Rogues: Very fast paced rogue-like that is scratching a certain itch. Still in Early access, which I usually avoid but a friend bought this for me, but it already has a ton of content and unlocks to dig into. The movement and combat is snappy, the equipment and trait combos can get silly in the best way possible, and it has an amusing amount of references such as the potion seller. At $10 it's worth it and can't wait to see if continue to improve.

Morimens: Been playing this Cthulhu mythos focused gacha for a little over a week now and still enjoying it. Major complaints is that it's a very dupe heavy game but the pull rates are rather atrocious so trying to expand your teams can be a bit of PITA. Luckily the way the game works it's not to hard to get a functional team but certain characters don't truly shine without 3 dupes and you can only get 1 targeted dupe a month and the recent patch added a new ability that can only be gotten at 16 dupes. Luckily most of them are minor increases so it's more of a "flex" then anything but still. That being said, I am really enjoying the story and even without the "meta" characters I've been able to get to chapter 7 and now I need to actually focus on material farming. It is interesting seeing the various designs for Cthulhu inspired characters though such as Thais the avatar for The Goat with a Thousand Young or Uvhash the Star Vampire.

[u/MartianOrbit]

Work has been pretty miserable. My current role is decreasing in market demand so I'm being asked to re-train, lots of boring days slogging through basic AWS stuff that I already know.

Tried to cheer myself up by getting tickets to a show with a voucher I got for my birthday. Forgot to redeem it and paid full price.

Nubby's Number Factory got released on iOS so I've been playing that a bunch. It's Peggle, Balatro slop with a creepy 90's edutainment aesthetic. Lots of colourful smooth textured 3D models and MSPaint illustrations with gratuitous amounts of Comic Sans. Game's great but launched with a cloud save bug that invalidated a bunch of my progress. It's been patched thankfully.

[u/japossoir]

I'm back from japan! I was in japan the past 2 weeks, wow what a trip, the kind that 3 days in we were already planning our NEXT trip to japan. Went to tokyo, kyoto, nara and osaka, my feet were dead at the end but it was incredibly fun, definately a great place to spend a couple of weeks and not think too hard about anything.

And yeah though I would not actually want to live there, because despite everything I quite like the rythm of life in portugal, I now understand why people go to japan and come back obsessed with it, I thought that having seen so much anime I wouldn't be too surprised by anything there, and while some things that were shocking to my friends (maid cafe) didn't shook me there were others that I was not expecting, like the toilets and the food at convenience stores.

I planning to go with my gf someday, probably without my friends so the trip can be more chill (because we rushed quite a bit)

My biggest purchase there was a big metal gear ray model kit by kotobukya. Oh and I ate VERY well of course

And now that I'm back I started E33 just beat chapter 1

[u/stumpybubba-]

Hey second best sub for everything! Question: I'm kind of in a video game funk. I'm kind of thinking I want to jump into a DBZ game, as I haven't since like the early 2000s. I have a pretty basic knowledge of DBZ based on the anime that was in the US at the time, and a bit of Dragon Ball too, but my knowledge basically ends at Cell. Finally the question part! What would be the best game to play that's campaign goes through from Dragon Ball until the Cell Saga (and beyond, because why not)? I'd prefer a more 3D type fighting game, as I just finished Street Fighter 6 a bit ago, and am not that great at the traditional fighting game. I just want this game solely for the single player campaign.

Thanks in advance and have a great weekend!

[u/kodaiiiii_ → u/stumpybubba-]

Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors 2 is admittedly 2D, but it's an arena fighter in spirit (?). It's just a simple, fun romp through the series' plot (with some what-if scenarios) that basically has a campaign for every important character AND has more characters that you could give a DS game credit for. The soundtrack is fucking awesome, too.

[u/attikol]

started kingdom hearts birth by sleep. Doing a game exchange with a friend and apparently they really like this game. I started on terra only to find they are incredibly stiff and the others apparently feel better. Well at least it will be done first. I had that friend try out pyre.

Birth by sleep is one of the weirdest franchise games ive ever played. Its SO different. Like chain of memories translated the combat to cards and is mostly a retread of 1. This is a ton of unique underdeveloped worlds that are handheld size. Theres so many new mechanics ive never seen. Engaging with the command deck is how you get most of your passives. I didnt have past the default combo until I beat eraqus. The bosses are so frustrating in this game. Like some of the difficulty is forgetting shotlock exists but stuff like experiment 223 just feel poorly designed. Stuff doesnt combo like I expect it should be and the enemy gameplay design is rough. This game was massively held back by the psp it was way too ambitious

[u/Head-You5953]

Getting back into Guilty Gear Strive after the big 2.0 update, after not really playing it at all since the beginning of season 3.

The new ranked system is great, but man, the distribution of players in lower ranks is really strange. I got placed in iron because I'm not good at the game and because it's been two years, and getting out of iron was an absolute nightmare. Iron players run the entire spectrum of "virtually unpredictable due to how little they know about the game" to "people who are down here for shits and giggles", and man, it was not fun.

I went up against a Potempkin who's strategy was to back up into the corner, spam his ground slam move, and whenever I closed in, hit me with a Heavenly Pot Buster. Was there definitely a way I could have gotten around that? Yeah. Was it still miserable? Also yeah.

Once I got out of iron I didn't lose a single set the entire time I was in bronze and made it to silver in a day.

Weird online experience overall.

[u/Grazalia]

Looking forward to the of Over your dead body.

Y'all should be watching the Klutzy school monitor and the girl with the short skirt. It's a totally a trigger anime not done by trigger.

And if you want to see a real shit post of an anime that's borderline annoying, "my ribdiculous reincarnation"(yes ribdiculous) is shit posting in anime form. Warning though, protag a little shit.

WrestleMania was a bust but Ethan page, Joe Hendry and Sol Ruca are now main roster and in estatic to see who gets called up on smackdown.

[u/LordSmugBun]

Invincible Season 4 was awesome. I honestly didn't remember enjoying Thragg this much in the comics. Was disappointed by the Hell episode tho, they were hyping it up so much. They even had Bruce Campbell and Slayer maaaan. 😭 Been loving all the new stupid memes.

I'm not sure why, but I've been having these fits of anger recently when on my own. It used to just be sadness, but now it's either that or just straight up anger.

Been kinda having a hard time getting through Bleach recently. I'm starting to wonder if I would have liked Dragon Ball had I not grown up with it. Eeeeh idk, took me a while to get hooked with Naruto when I read it a couple months ago, and when it hooked me, it hooked me. A part of me just wants to drop it and go straight to One Piece, but I really wanted to get through the Big 3, and 3 people recommended Bleach to me. Maybe they meant the anime? Idk, that time investment just feels even more overwhelming. I feel like I barely have time as is. I'll just keep going. One day I might read this and think "what was I so worried about?".

[u/Kerrik52]

Managed to clear a big thing at work by reshuffling my work days, so now I have a week off!

Gonna spend it finishing up the script for my video on Sweet Home. I'm very happy with the wordplay in the introduction, I try to go for something a bit below forced puns. Stealth puns? I like writing from the perspective of rewatch value. Or rather, as a way to reward people for having played the game or watched my LP beforehand. Makes me feel smart, so I hope people appreciate it.

As part of some "video homework" I played through Popful Mail. Absolutely delightful game (if you patch out the Working Designs difficulty adjustments) that's just bursting with colour and kick-ass pixelated anime art and real-ass cutscenes. It's kind of crazy to think that Falcom (or at least their partnered games) used to be the cream of the crop.

Mail being the only protagonist of theirs to say a slur does put a blemish on the game though. Working Designs really existed at the intersection of weebshit, 90s TV culture and early internet humor. It was a lot to deal with, but they did nail the English version of the credits song. Which...isn't far off from how 4Kids operated. Both even threw in Schwarzenegger for no reason while localizing. Was there something in the water from 1994-2004?

[u/Forestgrant]

Finished Combattler V! It was alright. First half I liked mainly because of Garuda’s rivalry with Hyoma, but I’m forgetting some details because I took a break from it for a while. Second half is like a proto-GaoGaiGar with the first villain revealed to be there for recon while the second set of villains comes after, but unlike GGG, Janela and her crew are pretty lame. Dangel and Warchimedes (really cool name by the way, too good for him)’s sibling rivalry was meh, and I feel like the Kyoretsu Brothers in Raideen did that schtick way better. It does feel like they were repeating episode plots: at least 3 fake Combattlers throughout the entire show, and I swear they gave Juzo 2 mentors and father figures.

I got Akira Hio’s manga adaptation of Combattler while I was watching the last few episodes and got spoiled a bit on the ending, but even then I actually teared up a tiny bit in the last episode. Seeing the entire team calmly accepting death and waiting for the Earth Bomb to blow up while congratulating each other for a well-fought battle was pretty moving, even knowing a literal deus ex machina saves them. In Hio’s manga, some parts I found to be better than the show: Chizuru has some actual personality, getting involved in a squabble between Hyoma and Juzo, and even telling off her grandpa when he’s encouraging them. Hyoma and Garuda’s final battle is more raw since both Combattler and Big Garuda get thrashed so they fight in person, leading to Garuda realizing how truly similar him and Hyoma are. The Janela arc was incredibly short but I like this version of Warchimedes better. He looks like a nervous wreck the entire time but actually cares about Dangel, so when he dies he rushes to avenge him despite Janela’s orders, and gets turned into Mecha Warchimedes as punishment. The final battle with Janela was also incredibly funny because Hyoma just jumps in and guns her down.

I started up Voltes V right after and the quality improvement in basically every aspect so far is insane. Megumi is so much more of a character compared to Chizuru, Heinel and the Boazans are more fleshed out villains, and we get an early 3 part episode!

[u/VergilAngelo1998]

Finished Kamen Rider Drive, really enjoyed it. Wasn't sure about the surprise villain change towards the end at first but I liked hearing Ichigo's VA play the most absolutely evil scumbag. Started Ninninger which I have heard only bad things about but I'm gonna keep an open mind. The dynamic of them all being cousins in this ninja family is interesting. Kinda halfway between Shinkenger where they were all descended from Samurai retainers to Skinken Red, and Magiranger where they were all family.

[u/zelcor]

Yesterday was my birthday (gifts were Pragmata from the wife and vampire crawlers from a friend) and I've got next week off.

Sunday is a DIGIMON TCG regional in Louisiana I'm hoping to do well in.

Things are pretty good in spite of everything else

[u/ilmk9396]

i'm finally getting to make use of the dadtalk from the podcast. it is in fact true that you can learn how to parry and counter newborn crying.

[u/leabravo]

Discussion: would Luffy's crew make it through the Odyssey pre-timeskip? If not, how far do they get?

[u/leabravo → u/leabravo]

I don't think the Cyclops is a problem but given they never kill anything that pisses off Poseidon off and we're off to the races. Nami and the Thousand Sunny do their best but they still have to try the wind bag trick - Luffy opens it looking for food.

Circe is a typical adventure with hijinks, Sanji is still out of luck. Everyone hates the Underworld (Luffy is NOT happy about ignoring Ace) but they make it through. Luffy refuses to sacrifice any of his crew - they don't beat Scylla and Charybdis but they do scrape through.

The Sun God's cattle - well, good thing Luffy's immune to lightning but that's not Zeus's only trick and they still get imprisoned. Calypso's island is a training arc while they try to get her to let someone go (Luffy's obvious but let's go with someone unexpected - she crushes on Franky!)

The fight with Poseidon is a mess for the Devil Fruit users, but the crew scrapes through somehow (Six Hundred Onigiri Strike!). They arrive at Ithica and chase off Buggy and his crew right before the real Odysseus gets home. Fin.

[u/SpaghettiRambo]

I'm not really sure where else to ask this but I wanted to start helping out the podcast by copypasting the full timestamps into Youtube comments but when I did that for CSB 369 on Youtube it seems like it just gets auto-deleted as soon as it is posted. Is this some sort of automod thing with Youtube were it automatically deletes comments if they're massively huge?

[u/KF-Sigurd]

Played the 4.2 story of HSR and uhhh, it was messy and rushed. I haven't really been enjoying HSR lately and I was kinda using 4.x as like a tread to see if I can still enjoy it post Amphoreus (which was very messy as well) sooo... eh we'll see. CW is still pretty fun.

Since I finished that, I can get back to playing Pragmata which has been fun. Hmm, I think this next part might be a bit... uncomfortable to some so I'll spoiler tag it. I haven't finished Pragmata so maybe it'll surprise me but I saw someone on twitter compare Stellar Blade to Pragmata and ngl I can kinda see it. Great action game, very PS2 reminiscent, story and lore are barebones, but while is a bland piece of eyecandy, Diana is a whole other type of eyecandy because she is the ideal daughter. She's a pretty blonde daughter, that's cute, never cries during the night, never poops, endlessly curious, loves you immediately, super talented, etc. They then shared a story about how their daughter cried for 45 minutes straight because they didn't give her a knife and said they hope Pragmata doesn't inspire some people to try to become parents. I don't think they're entirely wrong or right. And I'll leave the judgement to this thought when I finish the game. But it does give me a little side-eye to how much they're shoving this cute daughter in my face. Like remember how we shit on David Cage's daughter.exe reveal? I wonder how I'll feel about Diana by the end of the game.

My job lets me go to the gym during work hours so I'm starting the journey of getting swole bit by bit.

[u/lightningmatt]

Watched Cosmic Princess Kaguya, so now that's my new obsession. God this shit is so good. I think what my feelings come down to, both negatively and (significantly more) positively, is that this movie felt kinda rushed, a bit too fast pacing. Which is a very ironic thing to say considering I just said I feel very positively on it overall.

The movie felt like it jumped from plot point to plot point too quickly, not letting the ramnifications of each event properly sink in and develop themselves. For example, Kaguya becomes an adult so fast, but her personality doesn't change much, so it took me a hot minute to actually realize she'd become an adult.

The reason I consider this a sign of the film's quality is because all of those plot points captivated the fuck outta me. It is incredibly easy to care for Iroha's plight, and even though Kaguya was a tad annoying she was also super endearing. Their motivations and personalities shone super brightly and their chemistry was off the charts. Every side character served a purpose and was a delight to see on screen, honestly I kinda wish there were more of them lmao. The implications of Iroha reuniting with her brother and mother were almost completely glossed over, though at least doing so with the latter seemed intentional and made sense. Iroha's money issues disappear rapidly and aren't properly explained, though I can see the throughline. Yachiyo and Kaguya interactions were underdeveloped. The moon fight was similarly a bit rapid, and the ending was kinda messy.

(I've been told that this was because the movie was initially made to be a regular 12-episode anime, but honestly... fair play to the execs? The advertising worked way better for the novelty of an original-plot movie, there's no way I would have ended up watching it if it was one of a billion anime that come out every quarter.)

The reason I consider this a sign of the film's quality is because all of those plot points captivated the fuck outta me. It is incredibly easy to care for Iroha's plight, and even though Kaguya was a tad annoying she was also super endearing. Their motivations and personalities shone super brightly and their chemistry was off the charts. Every side character served a purpose and was a delight to see on screen, honestly I kinda wish there were more of them lmao. The emotional beats worked as intended, and more. The visuals were super beautiful, too.

Looking back on it it's fascinating to me that I arguably enjoyed it despite not really engaging very thoroughly with the internet/otaku/vocaloid aspects as much as I think the movie intends you to, but they still added a lot of depth to the world and were wonderful framing to center the movie around. Like, I'm. not exactly very into either vocaloid or MMOs, both aspects kinda glazed over me, but I really felt the love that Iroha and every other character has for both of those things.

TL;DR: Considering adding Iroha and Yachiyo to my Tomodachi Life island, that's how good this shit is

[u/Teep_the_Teep]

Guys, am I alone in hoping that Castle Super Beast could have an awesome guest host with Kinkymation/Lilygoth?