Off Topic Discussion Megathread

[ReynTime]

Currently playing Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and it is just... Chef's kiss
They totally redeemed themselves for 2's shortcomings. I think I might be a little over halfway in the story and genuinely think its the best of the four games.
Especially the main cast of characters.

[Renalt]

Currently playing Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and it is just... Chef's kiss
They totally redeemed themselves for 2's shortcomings. I think I might be a little over halfway in the story and genuinely think its the best of the four games.
Especially the main cast of characters.

So it's not a Waifu collector this time? That's good news.

[RyuDragnier]

So it's not a Waifu collector this time? That's good news.

From what I heard from a friend, it's far closer to XC1 in terms of vibes.

[Cincierta]

To the InstaCart guy who came in at 7:30 am this morning and was extremely rude to us bakery ladies to the point he was using sexist remarks about us all because the bread he needed was too hot to slice: stay out of my store and I hope you never come back.

[Vyrerus]

For the first time in a long time, I found a Youtube channel that I've managed to spam the videos of, that goes in depth with JRPGs, retrospectives into specific ones, etc. Gaming Broductions is the channel name, and is actually worth watching a few videos of. I'd suggest their retrospectives first, as those are really fleshed out and he gets pretty in depth with the games.

Gonna check this out.

[dapperfaffer]

LoL Haru.
shoulda been a perma

[ReynTime]

So it's not a Waifu collector this time? That's good news.

"Waifu collecting" was a gimmick specific to 2. It doesn't and never did define the series.

From what I heard from a friend, it's far closer to XC1 in terms of vibes.

I'm finding the plot to be better paced and darker than 1. And it suffers a lot less from the problem in 1 and 2 where they focus on 2 or 3 characters too much and everyone else is just kinda there, with more evenly distributed screen time and development.
It honestly might be the best of the four Xenoblade Chronicles games. While 2 is the black sheep at this point.

[ZedxKayn]

I decided to check out pkmn again after dropping the series at sun and moon and ohhhh my God it's still so bad. I mean it's giving me mixed feelings, I've cared about it so much and I still do but I can't stand being constantly interrupted by annoying NPCs. And gen 8 is imo by far the ugliest gen so far, too. If it weren't at just the right level of Japanese for me to practice I don't know if I'd keep playing sword. At least I know for sure how to say "My big bro is the coolest and he's got a Charizard!! And also I'm gonna be the strongest champion" or whatever.

Brilliant Diamond is so much more pleasant so far but for sure that's in virtue of basically being a game from almost 5 generations ago.

[Cilia]

I decided to check out pkmn again after dropping the series at sun and moon and ohhhh my God it's still so bad. I mean it's giving me mixed feelings, I've cared about it so much and I still do but I can't stand being constantly interrupted by annoying NPCs. And gen 8 is imo by far the ugliest gen so far, too. If it weren't at just the right level of Japanese for me to practice I don't know if I'd keep playing sword. At least I know for sure how to say "My big bro is the coolest and he's got a Charizard!! And also I'm gonna be the strongest champion" or whatever.

Brilliant Diamond is so much more pleasant so far but for sure that's in virtue of basically being a game from almost 5 generations ago.

Sun & Moon were very good story-wise. I don't know about the "Ultra" updated versions, there wasn't enough new content in those for me to bother with them.

Sword & Shield were mid at best.

Legends: Arceus greatly shakes up the formula. Its story is nothing special, but I greatly enjoyed it all the same - much more than I have any Pokémon game since... what, Black & White? Fortunately it looks like Scarlet & Violet are taking a page from this one...

Not interested in the Gen 4 remakes. They take steps backwards, unlike the other remake games that kept the modern feel but applied it to older regions.

[Midareyukki]

Didn't play Sun and Moon, but I did play Ultra Sun. From what I hear, it's largely the same until the latter portions. Rather than chasing the World's Greatest Mother down a portal and watch her child disown her on the spot, we're instead treated to lovecraftian horror when our cute lion pal is possessed by an evil prism. Said prism then yeets itself into a wormhole, we chase after it, and it becomes a giant overpowered lamp or something. Then the wormholes open up again and out come every antagonist to try and commandeer Aether Foundation, only to be kicked out by a 10 year old.

Ultra Beasts only really get explored in texts you find scattered while searching for Big Lamp Guy. But even then it's clearly just passing mentions and doesn't go into too much detail.

I wish TPC would realize that they've added in so much to the franchise and would just consolidate them or focus on them. We went from Mega Stones to Z Moves to Gigantamax, as well as Alolan and Galarian formes. It's clear that they don't have a guiding thread and don't know how to handle all the stuff they've added in. And being dismissive of the previous games' mechanics to put the new gen on the spotlight doesn't help.