Dave

"If you showed a caveman technology, he'd think it was magic, and if you show a modern man magic, he'd think it was technology." It's a good Outlast quote.

Well, back when all we had to run on was KH2 is terms of what Xehanort's motivation was, my take on it was that apprentice Xehanort had something of a hero worship on Ansem, judging by how dejected he is when Ansem tells him to stop doing his research, and the line of Xemnas where he tells his old master, "I thought you would have been proud of me, but all you ever do is hold me back." In a way, he wanted to BE Ansem, conducting experiments, demanding allegiance, and pushing thought forward. Also, it might have been a matter of convinience, since when you overthrow the king of Radiant Garden, people are going to notice unless you put up a pretty good front that Ansem is still there. Heck, even the opening of DDD kind of backs this up to a very limited extent, with Xehanort outright rejecting his name and taking the moniker of Ansem. Now that everything I liked about the character of Ansem and Xemnas has been torched by BBS and DDD, though, it was probably just done for the sake of misdirection and needlessly convoluted machinations.

I would have posted it in wingdings, so that people would need to decode it in order to find out the rules they are meant to follow.

-Kuja- Instinctively, Myles felt inclined towards annoyance to the older woman both listening in AND interrupting the conversation. He wasn't some phone booth that could be accessed by just anyone wanting to drop a line. Yet, perhaps it was the past few days of isolation, or maybe because someone was simply taking an interest in him at all, but the artist found himself inclined to answer the call. "Well, then, if it's a choice between starvation or entrusting my safety and well being with a stranger, I suppose I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth." Pleased that fate had, at the very least, treated him to a Samaritan with a sense of style, Myles walked alongside her as she exited the Inn. "Think of how many kingdoms would have fallen without a shot had the barbarians at their walls only offered them food..." The metaphor trailed off as his eyes became more concerned with something infinitely more concrete. For the first time, he espied the aforementioned companion the woman had spoken of: a young, short haired, blonde man who seemed to be dressed far more sensibly than one would expect of the local assortment of hicks and plebeians. He wasn't certain if it was the spark of intelligence in the young man's eyes, or the fact that he defied every low expectation Myles brooked for the citizens of Destiny Beach, but for some reason, the artist felt... challenged, somehow. "And what say you?" Myles asked Zachary. "How willing would you be to forfeit all the power in the world in exchange for a breakfast that didn't corrode your stomach wall?"

I would very much like to be, if for no other reason than it symbolizes Square moving away from FFXIII and doing one of the things that made FF great: giving you a new world and characters to interact with. At the same time, I'm not a huge fan of the direction of this one to a more modern setting, and the characters thus far are honestly too pretty for me to the point where I have a hard time taking them seriously. The combat and gameplay aren't necessarily up my alley, as I am a fan of the turn based system of old, but I recognize the need to do something different and more action oriented in order to appeal to the modern gamer, so I'm willing to make peace with it.

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. I loathe this game, compounded primarily because Path of Radiance is in my top ten favorite games of all time, and Radiant Dawn does its best to screw with a ton of the things that I liked. The most notable problem that I have is Micaiah, who is the ultimate Mary Sue. She has strange powers that make her super special awesome, she can talk to birds, everyone loves her unquestioningly, she is always positioned to have the moral high ground, she gets put in charge of the forces in spite of total lack of experience and no one bats an eye. And most importantly of all, she talks shit about Ike, who is one of my favorite characters exactly because he is the opposite of Micaiah in every way. He works his way from the ground up, learning from his acknowledged superiors of Titania and Soren. His biggest strength is trying to use diplomacy (often at edge with his somewhat grumpy and blunt [but never unapologetic] nature) on people who either are NOT on his side at all (like Shinon), or people who are initially desposed to neither like nor trust him (like Ranulf). Even as he rises, he accepts that he is not the one calling the shots in the grand scheme of things, and is just as much stuck in the machinations of Begnion as anyone else, making him far more relatable than someone who is put on a pedestal and constantly told how special they are. And when he DOES get put in charge of the company, the fall out is immediate and believable, with the more experienced veterans walking out on him for the reason that he's not as seasoned as they are, and Ike, to his credit, acknowledges that this is indeed the case, and tries to learn from the ones who stay behind until he can hold the reigns on his own. His rise to power is organic, believable, and his hard work and determination to get to the point where he can be called a General without question, on par with the expectations his father set for him, is a satisfying arc that makes him look stronger as a result. Of course, the game's rational for Micaiah calling out Ike is because she was on the losing side of the war that Ike won. And here's the problem with that: if you want me to feel any kind of sympathy for the country of Daen, who ran roughshod over Crimea in a war of active aggression, and was run by Ashnard who was far less than a nice guy, you are barking up the wrong tree. The game basically tries to guilt trip you for playing the predecessor, which is dumb when they were obviously the villains and warrant finite sympathies. The argument, of course, is that this is a different viewpoint trying to add layers of complexity to a war which involved multiple nations, and of course the losers would have an axe to grind that would be justified in their own right. Fair enough, but to whitewash over all of the garbage that Daen committed in order to establish the "freedom fighter" motivation of Micaiah and friends is dumb, and is something that is honestly not treated as a complicated issue because Micaiah is always presented as completely and totally correct. Now, flipping away from Micaiah for a bit, the game splits itself into acts, going over to what's happening in Crimea with Elincia and her guards trying to stop a coup (which, in fairness, is a really good story), and then Ike and the Greil Mercenaries come back to headline another act of the game. And while we do get the chance to play as the characters that I actually like, the switching from party to party to party, each with their own set of characters who, incidentally, are not leveling up in cohesion with one another, is disorienting and kind of annoying, as you no sooner get into one groove than you have to find another. The game really needed some streamlining here, if only to make it so you knew who was on your team and worked best with what situation.

Rydljaer. Man, that dlj combo is a hard one to get your tongue around.

OR, he actually saved people by returning their bodies and hearts to them.

Maleficent. In my mind, she is the perfect fairy tale villain to match the surreal nature of Kingdom Hearts. That intense vanity mixed with a superior aloofness makes for a great motivation, and at least she has some emotional stake in her plans, instead of just doing it for a great 3 science fair project.

He definitely is a straight up villain, though. As much as people want to hype up his "balance" thing, his motivations are basically that he's going to screw things up just to see what happens (like a kid shoving his finger in a pencil sharpener), and his means to this end have been entirely negative in their impact, from ruining the individual lives of people to instigating the devouring of worlds and near annihilation of the universe. He's yet to do anything remotely positive or "Light," which makes his claims to making a balance a load of bologna.

What the title says. I'm opting for Pink Yoshi. Those yellow kicks are awesome, and I've always equated him with the Yoshi version of Bret Hart when I play Smash Bros.

It would be awesome. Gargoyles was a fantastic show with memorable characters, the right blend of drama, humor, and action. It would be cool to roam the rooftops of New York with Goliath and the gang.

For years, I've been predicting that we drop a piano on him. I see no reason to deviate from this theory.

I've long since stopped caring about how this all works. All I know is I'm going to slaughter Team Xehanort when the time comes, long term ramifications be damned.

Just going to put my two cents in here. If you're engaging with someone on an emotional level with a deliberate intent to organize a negative outcome for your own psychological benefit, then you're kind of emotionally manipulating someone else. Staging an intentional rejection might give you a martyr complex, but you're not really doing the other person any favors by virtue of doing so. The best thing to do in this situation is to accept that the other person is in a relationship with someone other than you, accept their wishes, and move on.

WHY WASN'T THIS ACTUALLY A THING!?

1. Kingdom Hearts (the first one) 2. Final Fantasy VI 3. Dark Souls 4. Portal 2 5. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door 6. Banjo Kazooie 7. Golden Sun 8. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance 9. Epic Mickey 10. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

Just googled Seven Little Monsters. It definitely meets the criteria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Little_Monsters_(TV_series)

Spider-Man is on team Iron Man? Gives me all the more reason to cheer for the Captain.

Dark Souls III, yo!

What are some of the most satisfying video game memories that you have? Moments when you just feel accomplished for getting past a certain boss, doing something tricky, or things that just made you feel good and stand out after how many years. One of my big ones was beating King K.Rool for the first time. Donkey Kong Country was a huge part of my childhood, and I loved playing it, even though I was atrocious at platformers and never came close to beating it. Fast forward to years later, when I got my Wii and the Virtual Console with it, and picked up the old favorite, with more gaming experience under my belt. At long last, I managed to get to the Gangplank Galleon, and at long last, finally managed to trounce K.Rool. It was a great moment and a good memory to have. Another moment of accomplishment, though with far less feel good behind it, is beating Necron in FFIX. I hated fighting Necron, because he kicked my monkey tail every which way with his status effects and counters and hitting like a tank. Beating him took forever, and when he finally went down, it was one of the only times I've jumped up off my couch to do a victory dance. Also, beating Kalameet in Dark Souls with a weapon that broke one minute into the fight is up there. It wasn't by design, but the fact that I pulled it off is something I'm proud of.