Re: Off Topic Generalities

[Nayaby]

I haven't played it, but I've heard good things about it. I'm mostly interested because Aubrey Ashburn sings the opening song for Devil May Cry 3. Oh Aubrey, thou hath the voice of an angel...

[MozytheHealer]

Ah, okay. I read an article in Game Informer about DMC 3, and it looks pretty good, I'm just a little skeptical. I'd never heard of it before my friend started talking about it, so I don't have a lot to go on.

[Areada]

I have to say, I'm pretty sold on conjuration right now. It's amazing. I love summoning things and letting them fight for me.

[Nayaby]

Wow. I can't believe I'd never played FFX before.

It's absolutely brilliant! Everything about it is cinematic, even the turn-based fighting! And the voice acting... just wow! I loved Kingdom Hearts, but sometimes the voice acting seemed kind of forced. Mostly when they were talking about "darkness" and "hearts" but it's difficult to make any of that sound serious anyway. But so far, I've found the characters in FFX to be really great! Lulu reminds me a bit too much of Morrigan from Dragon Age though, from her character model to general demeanour, heh.

By the by Areada, what path of Conjuration do you think you'll take? Necromancy or Atromancy? You can master both if you really want to, even though I wouldn't recommend it since you can only have a max of two thralls summoned at a time anyway. Atromancy is more balanced since your thralls are their own characters that level with you. Also, with atromancy you don't have to worry about finding good corpses. Necromancy on the other hand can be really strong or really weak, depending on what you revive. Using bandits for your dead thralls sucks, but you can revive some powerful bosses to be your dead thrall. Then you have to make sure you don't lose the body though, so you can keep summoning that dead thrall. Good thing about necromancy though, is that you can revive your followers if they die. This proves interesting because you'll still get their inheritance and be able to visit their grave in the Hall of the Dead of their home town.

One way to safely store dead thralls would be to revive them and sneak them into your house in the middle of the night without any guards catching you. Then you could release the spell and have a dozen corpses stinking up the place, but you'd have a neat collection of possible dead thralls!

Your spouse wouldn't be pleased... unless you make him into a dead thrall too! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[Areada]

I think I will go with Atromancy, mostly because I'm really tired of getting into random trouble with guards. I really need to work on my sneaking. Any tips on how to level that nice and fast?


FFX is LOVELY, isn't it? Ah, so good! I watched the cutscenes with an obsessed friend years before I ever played the game-it was as good as a movie! The cutscenes in the "sequel" are similarly interesting, even if the plotline is a little...less engrossing...

But then again, final fantasy just does have lovely, lovely graphics and cutscenes (and voice acting). My god, final fantasy 12 and 13. Hard, confusing games, but oh lordy, the quality of the animation! *dies*

[Nayaby]

If you go to Riften you'll be able to start a quest chain that'll give you a bunch of missions where sneaking will come in handy. The only way to level a skill is to do it, so just sneak around I guess. I remember finding a blind man in a cave somewhere and leveling sneaking ten times before deciding it was way too cheap to do that. You just walk around in sneak-mode behind him for a while and you'll level up fast, and never get caught. Given the number of caves in Skyrim, it may be ages until you find him. I don't remember where that cave is.

[Areada]

Riften. Got it. I just was recognized by the greybeards as the DRAGONBORN and I was thinking to do some other side-questy type things now. I'm doing some quests for the mage's college right now, and that's rather fun. I love how story-driven everything seems to be right now.

[Nayaby]

You know. I just realized that Wakka is Bender Bending Rodriguez. Made my day!

Go John DiMaggio!

[Draco]

What Wakka? The only one I know (and it might be Wokka or something, maybe Waka) is from Okami.

[Areada]

Well, here we are for another of "Areada's Skyrim Report!" posts.

I'm in the middle of like four quests, and trying to finish them, only they get difficult. One of them I should have finished pretty easily, had it not been for the TWO dragons I encountered on the way to my final destination. What? I killed one of them (YES) and the other one I just couldn't because I'd used up all my good stuff on the first one.

But I did kill a dragon. By myself. No army of NPCs behind me. Just me and Lydia...and that storm atronach I summoned. Ha. I love conjuring.

I have decided that Conjuring, for me, is really the way to go. I'm going to work up on destruction and restoration too, just for some okay balance, and also train light armor and one-handed weapons on the side. Possibly put some points in archery/alchemy/other helpful things, but not a lot of points yet. I don't want to be too spread out at this moment (only level 7).

[Nayaby]

Wakka from FFX is voiced by John DiMaggio. Waka from Okami is voiced by... floating text! Okami's one of my favourite game by the way. Okamiden was good too, and I'm really hoping for a new game some day.

Alchemy wouldn't suit your character I think, Areada. If you have Restoration Magic, you don't need healing potions, and poison is most useful for assassin characters. I'd go with Enchanting for your crafting skill personally. You'll be able to customise your armour with enchantments that make spellcasting cost less magicka and use fewer souls to recharge your weapons and staves. Extra Effect is the final perk in the Enchantment tree, which allows you to put two enchantments on a single item and it's pretty awesome.

[Areada]

Enchanting, eh? Excellent. Sounds awesome.

I killed another dragon today.

It was epic.

[Nayaby]

Speaking of Skyrim, today's College Humour Original was hilarious!

http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6808832/hardly-working-skyrim

When you think about it, it is pretty hilarious how much effort I put into making a character who I primarily play as in first person xP

[Nayaby]

Blitzball is easy, but sooooo time consuming :O Fortunately, since I'm playing on an emulator I can speed up the game to 4x speed when I don't control the ball. That way those 10 minute blitzball games become 4-5 minutes each (when you factor in the time pausing while you decide what move to make). As a completionist, I must get everyone's Celestial Weapons!

Also, emulator save states were extremely useful for dodging 200 consecutive lightning bolts for Lulu's sigil. My actual streak was probably less than ten xP

So far I have everyone's Celestial Weapon and Crest. I just need Wakka and Yuna's Sigils to unseal their celestial weapons completely! Also, I still need two hidden aeons (which I wouldn't have even known about if I hadn't looked at a sidequest guide).

[Zip]

*And on not really related news*

My first year of high school starts on Monday. I suppose I should be pretty anxious or excited about it, but I'm still feeling pretty awful because, like an idiot, I went and got sick right before school started. When I blew my nose and actual snot came out on Thursday, it felt pretty bad. The night after, I sneezed, and it felt like I was going to cry(and I only did so for tweeeeenty minutes!).

Happily enough, though, some of my friends called later that night and sang "Soft Kitty" to me, so that was pretty nice. Hopefully, though, my immune system's white blood cells will fight off the invaders. White power.

OH. OH. OH. I'VE OFFENDED MYSELF. OHHHHHHH....I'M SO SORRY. OH VOT.

...Mmmmmmhhh. Although, I suppose my worst fear is that I go into Spanish class and get the entire class sick. Then, they eventually get the class sick, and eventually the school will come to know it as the "Spanish Flu."

How are you guys faring?

[Nayaby]

Oooh! Enjoy your first day of high school Zip! And get well soon :/

Final Fantasy X spoilers ensue:

Spoiler:

Edit:

No! I can't believe it! No matter what I do, I can't get FFX-2 to work :'( After that ending, I need to play the sequel! ARGH! I managed to get it working with ridiculously pixelated character models, but I encountered some "Assertion Error" soon after. *head desk* I could also ask what the heck is up with Yuna's dress and why she's akimbo wielding pistols all of a sudden, but at the moment I'm more concerned with getting the game to work. I can't *not* play it, since the last game had me hooked. I need to know what happens O_O

Worst come to worst, I'll have to watch a playthrough on Youtube. *shudders*

[Nayaby]

I DID IT!

I got FFX-2 to be playable, and without ugly pixelated character models!

NO ASSERTION ERROR!

The FPS slows down during scenes with lots of objects in the environment... but it's not so slow that it's unplayable anymore!

But jeez... this game's really cheezy, isn't it?

Edit: A bit more tinkering and I got it running at a solid ~60 FPS! WOOOHOOOOO!

[Areada]

Yeah...the thing about FFX2 is that basically it's a cheeseball of a game that has some decent cutscenes and, ultimately, an ending you really really want to see. But the rest of it is kind of silly. That's why I just watched the cutscenes!

As for how I am faring, Zip, I am alright. I am alive. I am okay, ish. School starts tomorrow and I have some things to work through in the next few weeks, but ultimately, I should be all right. A lot better than last year, I think. I just have to adjust back into having classes and stuff...

[Nayaby]

Bahahaha! I'm loving it actually xD I was pretty skeptical, but the cheese factor is awesome. Yuna says "Double double toil and trouble" when she switches to Dark Mage mode, and Rikku randomly says "Duck soup!" when she wins a battle sometimes, prompting Paine to say, "Duck what?"

Speaking of the cheese factor, Paine likes hurting people. Huh. Creative name!

It's kind of hilarious. I'm enjoying this game for what it is. The story isn't quite as gripping as the X1 though, heh.

Enjoy your first classes tomorrow! I don't start for another week.

[Zip]

Huzzah! First day of high school completed, and nary a drop spilled. I go to a performing arts high school, because I have no idea what to do with my life(the most recent passion of mine is podcasting), so most of my teachers directed me there. Because I'm apparently clever and stuff.

I enjoy my morning classes. English is fine, and we're next to windows. That's fantastic, I suppose. Windows! On the second floor! Hu-windows.
That's about it, really.

As for the citizens of our time that I attend this wonderful school with, they're pretty decent, I suppose. My major, Spanish(because I had no relevant skills to audition with), is fine, I suppose.
It's really, really nice.

Except for the fact that I have to go home on the buses. They're...they're terrifying. I don't. I don't like them.

[MozytheHealer]

I tried to start school today. It didn't work. I remember absolutely nothing. Not a bit. Basically it was just me staring at my Algebra problems and thinking "WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEEEAAAANNNN!!!!!"

Other than that, life is great right now.

OH! And today I realized that this is(hopefully) my last year of high school. O.o

[Draco]

Well then, I guess you guys will never get to try out City of Heroes.

They're shutting it down for good at the end of November. It was having no financial problems, apparently the publisher wants to go in a different direction.

The game ran strong for ten years.

Been playing this game for almost a year, was the most fun thing I've ever had to do.

Sad day.

Enough to make an Overlord sulk.

[Nayaby]

That's unfortunate

I'll be sure to check it out before it goes down, if it's still allowing people to sign up that is. It's a pretty neat idea, but I suppose nothing lasts forever.

[Nayaby]

http://blogs.wsj.com/canadarealtime/2012/08/31/quebec-whodunit-14-of-provinces-syrup-reserves-go-missing/

NOOOOOOOOO! NOT THE MAPLE SYRUP! GAHHHHHH!

[Draco]

Well, it seems to not be totally dead. Some very dedicated fans (remember, ten years running) are attempting to buy it from the parent company.

Or, failing that, at least get the name and build it again from the ground up.

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