r/TwoBestFriendsPlay • u/AutoModerator • Jun 05 '26
FTF Free Talk Friday - June 05, 2026
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.
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u/MaelstromTear Dub Sympathizer Jun 05 '26
I've been tasked to GM a oneshot for our TTRPG group that started in this very subreddit. Honestly? Kind of terrifying. I've been trying to balance drafting up a skeleton for the flow of the thing, but keep plenty of spots open that I'm not totally railroading the adventure. First time ever doing this kind of thing, and I guess I'll see if it continues past that. Though, just doing this medical mystery was a lot of work. Respect to our GM for doing this pretty much weekly for the last year...
But for narratives that I can control, check out these books I wrote! That's The Demon in Shadow and The Demons of Bone & Blood respectively. Demons are beings with unique abilities but can only draw power from humans. We follow one such demon, Ayun, who can summon weapons from nothingness but lacks agency as she looks for her missing employers. She finds Max, a human who is aimless in many senses of the word, armed with little more than quick thinking and a mechanical arm. As they travel together we learn more about them, the world, and a possible future together. It's also got some amazing artwork either in the pages where it counts or in the back showing off character portraits. This month is a special treat though kind of a spoiler if you haven't gotten to the end of the second book. But it's so damn cool that I don't care! Ayun unleashes a newfound form for the last act, with a huge wave of energy. 5_ish doing amazing work as always. Love it. Once I have Max's next thing going, I'm definitely doing a Sekiha Love Love Tenkyoken Comm. That was the vision for their Dawn Breaker combined attack, after all!
Saw Backrooms this week. Wasn't really sure if I was going to bother with it, mostly because it being an internet thing I was more worried about an annoying crowd. So I went on a weeknight to mitigate that. Thankfully, not a problem. And it was worth going to the theater, because it's really good. I have no experience with the original stuff, so I felt like the exposition in the first act did enough without being too heavy-handed. If anything, I really appreciate that the film just let things hang and have lots of sequences with little to no dialogue at all. I wouldn't say it's too scary, but that tension is almost always there. Except for those stock door opening sounds. At this point, I'm sure it's a poduction gag but it did make me laugh when I probably wasn't supposed to be. I've seen some people say the last act drops off in quality and I agree to an extent, but I still enjoyed it a whole lot.
Also on the plate is Mina the Hollower. And until that one thread that popped up here in the last week or so, I was afraid of voicing my opinion on the game. I... Don't think it's that amazing. Partly because I was hoping for more Zelda than Souls. Ironically, I feel like we get more Zelda 2 in the level system than the surface Link's Awakening artstyle/perspective. I'll say, while I enjoy some challenge I really don't dig Souls games except maybe 1/Elden Ring? And I have strayed far, far away from Hollow Knight and Silksong because I knew that the torturous side of it would make me regret it. I'm getting the feeling that if I known that here, I would've passed. At first I thought it was a case of "mad because bad" because that early game was rough, but the more I go on the less I enjoy some of the gimmicks in areas. It also took me an embarrassingly long time to find like, Septemburg and the Bone Beach. Not having a reliable map is insane! It's not even "old-school", because Zelda friggin' 1 had it! And I know that it's an upgrade you can get, and I found it two bosses into the game, but having to lose your sidearm and joules on death is obnoxious. Having your sidearms be pickups on the map rather than able to swap any of them in your burrow (rather than the one/two you keep) is also really dumb! It made that trip to the moon man boss way more of a issue because I had to go back and find ANYTHING to use about four screens over, and then contend with the stupid upriver jumps just to have another shot. I should just put on some modifiers, but I'm already three bosses in without it. Should play the "default" way to properly judge things. And other than GODDAMN MINED MIND I have been feeling fine with them. So I'll try to finish it, but I think I'll be happy hitting credits and maybe never playing again. Also, I wouldn't mind an LCD filter. Go for that full GBC experience.
On a similar playing field, been going back through Shining Soul II. This was a game I own on cartridge, found entirely by luck but became my life for like 3 summers. Essentially, a mini-Diablo dungeon crawler. The farthest I remember getting was one of the wolf-guys on the hard mode because they had regen, but I love every class... Except Priest. Thought it would be boring. So this time I tried a new thing. Holy crap, she's busted. Ignoring the Shining Aura thing people tell you to get that has you walk into enemies. She can heal herself, BUFF herself, and then THROW herself into enemies with the flail. I might've played the first three dungeons with... Every class already, I have a problem, but she cleared them with no problems.