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Girlfriend by Proxy
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November 13, 2006
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Josh - 7:49 EST
Story time!
My roommate has a girlfriend who usually ends up staying here from Sat-Tues, and then she goes back to work at as a scientist for the rest of the week. She's a good girl, and can cook. She usually ends up feeding all of us, so I'm not complaining. Although I'm somewhat perturbed at not cooking for myself, I know when to accept defeat and eat someone else's home cooking. Besides, then I don't have to clean up afterwards! Yay!
Also, no school for me tomorrow. Hooray!
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Antilles ain't got nuthin' on Blitzball.
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There are in fact a Biggs and Wedge in FFX and X-2
they are blitzballers, and yeah Tidus' sword stance is
a little retarded... well there are ways it could be
used but they way he swings when he attacks(if I
recall right) makes it a useless stance to take, also
I think Vaan's voice is strangely out of place in
comparison to the rest, but I've noticed this is
becoming a recurring trend with dubbed voices, where
the main character's voice is horrid and and
inexplicably out of place compared to the rest, I
would make some points but won't
Arros Raikou
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Josh
Ah crap. I knew that. *stabs himself*
I don't really know about Vaan. I don't think his voice is especially out of place (if anyone, it should be Penelo), but so far he hasn't really brought anything useful to -any- discussion. I'm at least 3/4 done with the game, and he's still just kinda following along. Hopefully that changes at some point, but it's starting to get frustrating. As for other main characters, whom else do you mean? I thought Tidus actually fit rather well. He also came from an era 1000 years in the past, if that provides any correlation to his differences.
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I totally forgot about Biggs and Wedge in the FF series! How could I
possibly forget my star blitzball player / fellow Avalanche member / MagiTek
driver / grunt Soldier / whatever else the hell they've been over the years
:^D. That's gotta just be a trend on the US translation end of things.
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Josh
I just realized that they also appear in OTHER Square games. They also appear in Chrono Trigger, in Norstein Bekkler's lab at the Millenial Fair (along with a Piette, which is obviously a reference to Admiral Piett). They also appear as some shopkeepers in Kingdom Hearts II.
Aaaaaaaand, I just found them in Final Fantasy XII! There are two Archadian Guards named Gibbs and Deweg, somewhere. I won't give it away. ^^
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FFXII's ties to Star Wars are uncanny. I knew I wasn't just hallucinating
when I came to that bit on the Leviathan. I could have sworn I was playing
FF: KOTOR. Since then, I've been having some trouble comparing the two.
Fran is Chewie. Chewie in a thong. Enjoy. (Seriously though, Fran's my
fave :^D)
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Josh
OMGBRAINEXPLODENOOOO!
*explodes violently*
*bits of Josh hang about the column*
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I've come to enjoy the battle system a lot more than I did at first. I like
being able to step back as one of my ranged fighters and survey the battle
and dictate from the back, while the meat shields duke it out up front. Do
you really need or even want to feed commands to your sluggers?
Attack...Attack...Attack...Attack...Magi-oh, wait that's right, I don't have
any...Attack, I guess...
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Josh
I actually take control of my main attacker to an extent. My three main characters consist of an agile, dagger-wielding, flurry of blades (Penelo), a White (mostly)/Black/Green/Time/Arcane Mage who also pulls out a sword when magic isn't necessary (Ashe), and a support mage who recasts buffs on the party when needed, and then attacks with a crossbow from afar (Balthier). At some point, after I've determined just how threatening the enemy is, I may go ahead and Berserk and Haste Penelo so that she just attacks like crazy. Then I'll switch to Ashe and make sure everyone is getting healed properly.
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Actually, that brings up another point. It sounds like most people are
specializing their characters. I've been keeping my guys pretty
well-rounded. Everyone uses a different kind of weapon just to keep it a
little different. Everyone uses the best armor I can find/afford.
Everyone's a white mage. Everyone's augmented as much as I can afford.
Fran is sorta my goto mage with the most spells, but I don't have a black,
green, or time mage per se. I've been largely ignoring most Techniks thus
far. I don't really know if this band of stand-alone warriors was a good
idea or not to be honest. The game's becoming more difficult, and as per
usual with RPGs, I don't feel much like hunting, and I've been winning dirty
(re: cheaply) like I do with most of these games. How much hunting have you
been doing? Is my character dev strategy flawed or do I just need to bite
the bullet and hunt if I want to win batles cleanly?
Vicissitude
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Josh
I hate mindlessly levelling up, and therefore have yet to powerlevel. From what I've seen, there's no real WRONG way to develop your characters. I personally think that well-roundedness is ok, but you have to realize that you're going to be hitting some boundaries with what you can do. Jack of all trades, master of none, is the saying. If you have the LP, then by all means, make everyone a master of everything! However, in battle, you're going to want to specialize your characters somewhat, or else you'll just have people being relatively mediocre at all things, rather than capitalizing on everyone's strengths over weaknesses.
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I'm looking forward to this.
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Hi Ouro,
ave a look at this.
http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=1&cId=3155102 . Oh yeaaah! PS3's
going doooowwwn!!!!
And I definitely agree that Sony are getting a bit too cocky. I think it was
some time last year when a spokesperson said that people would buy the PS3
for $600+ even if it didn't come with games, simply because it WAS the PS3.
Be warned, Sony, "the higher you are the harder you fall".
Was that the right phrase?
Genjuu gets mixed up.
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Josh
It's "the bigger they are, the harder they fall." But, meh. Semantics. ^^
Anyway, I read the article, and I'm going to play Devil's Advocate for a bit here. I may like Sony, but I'll be the first one to smack them should they end up doing something stupid. Be that as it may, I'm going to see if I can't refute some of this article.
- The price is double that of a PS2 - Well, yes. This is true. But we're getting much better technology. And $300 then is a bit more than $300 now, so it's not exactly double the price. Considering what we get in the package, $600 really isn't all that bad.
- You need an HDTV to enjoy it - You don't NEED one. Sure, it will make things better, but I guarantee that TVs are going to continue gravitating around HD technology, and eventually will have it incorporated in a much more widespread manner. HDTV prices are dropping a bit, too, and you don't NEED to drop over two grand to get a giant one. A smaller one will still play the games just fine.
- The PS2 had DVD, which was the common format - Ok, I'll give you this. But since HD-DVD can hold a total of 30GB so far, and Blu-Ray has been tested up to 200GB, I don't really see the problem here. Blu-Ray is a bit more expensive, ok.
- PS2 hype was positive, PS3 not so much - Well...ok. But this was all Ken Kutaragi's fault.
- Grand Theft Auto - Sure it drove sales up for PS2, but who's to say that something like this won't happen again with PS3? GTAIII didn't come out when the PS2 launched, but not too long after the PS3's launch, we'll have FFXIII and MGS4. Come on, if those don't sell PS3s, NOTHING will.
- PSX momentum is better than PSP momentum - Agreed. But the PS3 could actually boost sales of the PSP, especially due to the connection between the two.
- PS2 went against consoles that came out later. Much later - True, but we've also got Sony enthusiasts out there. There will be a bunch of people with Wiis and Xbox 360s, but I guarantee that the PS3 will push them aside for at least awhile. The Wii and PS3 will be neck and neck at the start, but Sony will bring its third-party lineup into the fray, and probably surge past the Wii. As for Xbox, it'll see HUGE sales when Halo 3 comes out, but after that, it'll slow back down.
- PS2 had SSX, PS3 only has Resistance - This isn't even an argument. What point are they trying to make here?
- Online sucks - We'll just have to see on this one. Until we even get a chance to get really hands on with it, there's no way we can make a verdict now.
- Arrogance - Meh. ^^;
They are cocky, but they've had tons of experience in this business, so I think they can afford to have a little bit of cockiness.
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But you don't UNDERSTAND - I'm a PRINCE!!!
i) XTC I don't really associate with any decade, they change somewhat for
each album. Slade had most of their hits in the 70's. Same with The Jam,
another Brit band I like. I can send you samples of each should you feel
curious, but it's not critical.
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Josh
I'm going to have to pass. I do rather like 80s music, but 70s music...not so much. :)
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ii) I inquired as to whether a copy of the PS translation of Grandia is
available online anywhere. Can you help? The Saturn translation project
appears to have stalled right after the Tower of Rain and Moon (which I hope
was not changed for PS, it's the place Gadwin has to go into to stop some
deadly rain, apparently).
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Josh
Been there. Ok, are you playing this game in Japanese, when there's a perfectly good English version?
I found that version you were looking for, and there was another one that took down all of its stuff after the English version was released, too.
Dude. Play the English version.
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iii) On the topic of Grandia; its opening theme sounds to me like a Great
Lost 70's Anthem. Also, I think Justin might set some kind of record for
Most Times Protagonist is Smacked Upside the Head early on.
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Josh
Well, Sue and Feena certainly had plenty of reasons for it. ^^
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iv) Christopher Columbus instituted a policy on Hispaniola, once the gold
mines were finally located, of forcing all adults to mine for gold and give
a set amount every three months to the Spanish. If an adult failed to come
up with the required amount, that person's hands were cut off. His
successors continued this and many other nasty policies, and the Arawak who
lived on Hispaniola at the time were all dead by 1650. From approximately 8
million people, to none.
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Josh
Ah, ok. That clears things up. Maybe they'll make some warped historical RPG one of these days where you have to go destroy all those that committed atrocities in the world. I imagine it will be quite the lengthy game.
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v) I'm mostly interested in co-op modes, but if you want competitive stuff
Guardian Heroes does have the fighting mode (and if you bring some friends
and a multiplayer adapter, it fits six). And I have a few fighting games
that I don't play solo much. Or there's Bomberman... But then again I very
much doubt you'll ever come here, there's absolutely no reason to do so.
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Josh
Well, I'll probably be back to running around Guild Wars once I get done with some more backlog. Nightfall seems to have been received pretty well, so I'm itching to get back to that.
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vi) Uh - Sheep? Is that some GBA licensed crap I've never heard of, or do I
need to use my imagination?
vii) I'm very saddened at your lack of Sakura Wars discoveries. The music
will have to wait until I can gather funds for eBay together, and the
translation... [sob]. Will I never know why Sumire got angry at me when I
answered a question I didn't understand?
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Josh
Because you touch yourself at night. That's the standard response in the Sakura Wars series!
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viii) More Sakura Wars 2; some of the bad guys really creep me out.
Mokujiki in particular has a left eye that looks like an insect one - and it
never blinks. Tsuchi-Gumo is freaky too, because she's a woman with six
arms who likes to talk in terms of spiders and prey. Any bad guys ever
disturb you?
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Josh
Nothing in RPGs. Silent Hill has had quite a few though...Valtiel. Sheesh.
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ix) A few more remixes for your judgement:
http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR00312/ Another Chrono Trigger,
http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01315/ the first Golden Sun,
http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR00188/ Super Mario RPG,
http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR00899/ FFVI, and something from a non-RPG I
think we've all played: http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR00896/
x) Do you also get bothered by games with irritating sound effects that ring
out when text is advanced? Grandia doesn't, which I like. Why are sound
effects even necessary for advancing text?
Why don't you guys leave us alone?
JuMeSyn
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Josh
First one is kinda dull. The second one isn't bad, but the beginning and end parts are too boring compared to the rest of the song. Really like the Mario RPG one, though.
Aaand...apparently my computer doesn't want to play the other two. Hrm. *fiddles*
I'll check 'em out later then.
As for sound effects, any unnecessary sound effects are irritating. Text scrolling included.
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Also, I would like to apologize to you and the column for the negative
portrayal of the ex-girlfriend I'm still close with, who actually
recognized which game the original letter was probably asking about and
shouldn't have just looked confused. (But we agreed that my satire on
the other two exes was about right.)
-- Arpijy
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Psh. That's what we're here for, negative portrayal! I won't tell if you won't...
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Banana Peels are out of stock for awhile! I also added another item...
Alrighty, here's a list of the items I SHOULD have soon. Don't know why they haven't gotten here yet, but whatever. It happens. Aaaanyway...like I said, if you want one of these at the Item tile, just let me know and I'll reserve it for you until it gets here.
- Liquid Poison Babble Slime keychain
- Tabula Rasa Skull Cap
- 2x Bumpy Trot harmonicas
- Harvest Moon Magnet
- Soul of the Ultimate Nation Binder Organizer
- Potentially one or two more things
Hope that clears everything up, and I'll get some pictures up once they get here.
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Combat Log
Luca Phase:
Luca Blight charges up!
DAMAGE Phase:
JDX falls to Tile 37.
JDX resists a spell!
Draconn falls to Tile 38.
Aurelius falls to Tile 32.
Movement Phase:
Leaper moves to Tile 34.
BLG moves to Tile 24.
Arros Raikou moves to Tile 1.
Alan Tse moves to Tile 18.
Slashlen moves to Tile 34.
PureLunatic moves to Tile 31.
Arpijy moves to Tile 29.
Vicissitude moves to Tile 25.
Aylee moves to Tile 23.
Tabor moves to Tile 36.
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Previous THONG Rounds!
Selections for characters can be found at the following sites:
Suikoden Characters
Suikoden 2 Characters
Click here for the rules and lists of items and prizes!
Click here to see previous trivia!
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Luca Blight
 Mweeheeheehee!
Answer to #L29: E. Bartz, Galuf
Bartz, then Lenna, Faris, and Galuf!
#L30.
Biggs was originally translated as "Vicks" in one of the Final Fantasy games. What is the first name of the moron whose fault this is?
A. John
B. Ted
C. Tom
D. Chris
E. Kevin
F. William
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THONG Question
Answer to #29:D. C
When you visit Tycoon Castle for the first time, the Chancellor gives you a Healing Staff, courtesy of the royal family treasury! (This was worth the normal 250 potch. I forgot to change it yesterday...)
#30.Difficulty: Hard, Potch: 350
Apparently, you have to defeat a person with the same name as a Sesame Street muppet in order to get him on your team in this game.
A. Chrono Cross
B. Radiata Stories
C. Suikoden
D. Phantasy Star III
E. Super Mario RPG
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IN CONCLUSION:
Ah, another good weekend. Hopefully my exams won't kill me this week and I'll be able to finish FFXII. Then I've got Okami still, then Disgaea 2, then...ah man, that Wii thingy. Anyway, give Matt some love, and I'll see you Saturday!
***Josh has two exams this week
Current Max Level: 41 (Ashe/Penelo)
Current Time: 43:41:22
Psych and Math! Woo...
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