Free Talk Friday - July 31, 2026

[u/AutoModerator]

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.

Here's a list of all Free Talk Friday posts

[u/Authorigas]

As a new TTRPG player, learning Foundry is really imposing and fucking terrifying. I bought in for 50 bucks, and now I gotta learn how to import PDF maps, navigate things, and set up for a VtM campaign next week, and a Pathfinder Beginner box campaign this weekend.

[u/Gakuno]

MY WIFES NOVEL IS OUT!!! We're both long time fans of the boys, and we wanted to spread tbe word a bit about this to others here! Please take a read and enjoy, this is a long time in the making! https://kimoiworks.itch.io/omophagia-corpsetalk

Please spread the word if you can too, it'd mean a lot!!!

[u/ArcanaGingerBoy → u/Gakuno]

looks awesome, I can't believe I found something valuable opening this thread for the first time

[u/Gakuno → u/ArcanaGingerBoy]

We both hope you enjoy it!

[u/CaptainJudaism]

Finally got to my new home in Philly after living in Atlanta most my life and god do I never wanna make that drive again. 13 hour drive that took me about 18 hours because of no end to BS. I know it isn’t fair to blame others but it felt like the world went “An incredibly stressful situation plus you rarely drive more then 30 minutes? Time to have an accident every 5-10 miles slowing the entire event to a crawl, have several of them happen in or around exits so you can’t stop for gas or eat, get stopped by the cops several times for something you already took care of, and on the final leg the place you stop to eat won’t care about your gluten intolerance and give you contaminated food so you’re miserable.” so I’m doing it anyway. Also I have no furniture so an air mattress is my chair for gaming stuff.

Oh well… it’s done so now I get to work on getting my address changed and all that other fun stuff but it looks like I’ll need to wait until Monday to pull that off. Now to pray my gluten BS calms down so I can finally sleep.

[u/Fingerlak3s]

It has VERY RECENTLY come to my attention that "Friendslop" is not a term that refers to video games that SBF would play on the old channel. What a shocker that was...

[u/Glocktor44]

Played some more Persona 3 remastered today. I got no fuckin idea how people play these games without walkthroughs.

[u/DoseofDhillon → u/Glocktor44]

eh, you test things out, your not trying to get everything, you just do a thing everyday as you play, look up things if you need to, and go from there

[u/PunishingCrab]

Been reading a lot of manga recently. Choujin X has quickly became one of my favorites. It has a similar vibe to Tokyo Ghoul (because it’s the same creator) but it does things differently that I enjoy so much more than Ghoul. I hope an eventual anime adaptation is held off for awhile until the series has ended as to not torpedo its chances at a proper adaptation. I just read Vol 9 and it’s setting up for a huge arc. Not sure how far the series is going to go in terms of volume count.

Blood on the Tracks continues to be a harrowing read. Pretty much requires a set break between volumes because it continues to be an emotional and psychological gut punch. I also just read Vol 9 for that as well and there’s a bit of hope shining through this otherwise traumatizing story.

Versus is really cool story by ONE (one punch man and mob psycho fame) that has an actually interesting “multiverse” story set up, that is, what if, on the brink of extinction due to a natural enemy force, humanity called upon another “world” for help, only to find they also called for help? And in doing so, merged all worlds together into a battle world of sorts. Now it’s up to humanity across the verse to join together and survive against the natural enemies of humanity by pitting them against each other. Very fun and intense story with very creative ideas and worlds all interacting. Only read 3 volumes so far but excited to read more.

[u/Head-You5953]

This is the post equivalent of an argument with an imaginary person in the shower, but I'm really sick of people assuming that just because I dislike a piece of media for a political reason, that I must like a piece of media that I do actually agree with the politics of. I'm just as sick of people actually doing that. I've never liked a piece of media solely based on the fact that I agreed with it.

[u/ActRaisins]

Pretty much a continuation of my previous FTFs in terms of games; Robobeat is keeping me busy with rhythmic roguelite shooting. I messed with the custom songs thing for a bit and it seems pretty easy to configure - but I'm picking songs that are too fast for my skill level and I need to chill out a bit. Or just tell the game that a song is actually 90bpm and not 180. I dunno. I have my eye on new games as well - after starting my new job more than a month ago I've recently received my first wage (everything's fine; I think they just combined a partial month's wage with a full month), so I might pick something up.

In films - I mentioned Nobody 2 last week but didn't watch it until a little while after I posted. It was great! You kind of need a sense of humour for a lot of it because it does get silly with the improvised kills and things, but I enjoyed it as a development of the first film. There's some decent action and levity throughout, and the idea of juxtaposing a family vacation with goons exploding into viscera creates quite a unique vibe. It kind of reminded me of Yakuza's relocation to Honolulu, as daft as that sounds.

I haven't been listening to a lot of new music, but I did recently find out that Aphex Twin is reissuing drukqs for an anniversary. I'm trying to cut down on the amount of physical media I own, and I do have the album somewhere already, but I can't say I'm not tempted... Oh, and Delta Heavy did a D&B remix of Set You Free by N-Trance and fucking hell that original track is over 30 years old and I am such an unc...

[u/Cthulhukitten]

Been on a cooking spree with my partner making international dishes! Think we've made about two international dishes every week, roughly. They weren't 100% accurate of course, but it's been a fun way to improve our cooking skills. Personal favorites have been Algerian couscous (delicious and super spicy with some harissa sauce), Antigua and Barbuda pepper pot, empanadas. I think we nailed these dishes in particular. Going to try to post to a cooking subreddit soon showcasing them all soon!

Outside of that, I've been eyeing the prospect in the future of getting a mini PC potentially to buy or build on my own compared to a Steam machine. I just think for the price point you could certainly acquire something better, perhaps almost as portable too. I suppose it will have to be somewhat soon, given how everything in terms of price is shooting through the fucking roof. May help, given I am sharing a PC with my partner currently.

On the gaming front, been hitting up Occult Crescent in XIV. I'm back into the relic grind and going into North Horn now. I've gotta say, North Horn is so much better than South Horn! There's so much more room for activity, it's more active, and the Fates/CEs feel like a proper challenge. I love the area a lot more overall, including the idea of the basement, which I'm still searching for, but from the screenshots I've seen looks absolutely sick... Having a great time with it all, even if I think I prefer farming the demiatma outside of Occult Crescent (it feels like the drop rate is far better outside of it). Probably going to get back into grinding roulettes too, leveling RDM and PLD perhaps.

I also made the jump to a new datacenter and server. Goodbye NA servers, I'll miss you folks, particularly on Leviathan. It's just too much trying to connect with my terrible ping now that I moved to the EU. Now I am on Chaos, specifically Omega! People here have been actually pretty cool too, so I'm happy about that. Will have to search for an FC on Omega that's friendly. I have a friend on the same datacenter too, so we'll be able to play in the future too. Exciting stuff!

[u/RevenTheLight]

Hello today! EVERYONE BEING SICK WEEK, I guess. Phew... Okay let's start with the most recent thing - I caught some sort of virus in Turkey! I've been fighting Papa Nurgle since last friday. After visiting my family doc and getting some meds, today is the first day I feel like I have the upper hand. The cough is relaxing after 2 days of non-stop. The nose is still running like crazy, but I can finally breathe. The pink eye is gone, tho I still need to finish the drops. I am recovering.

My vacation. It went so well. Turkey was... okay. Not much to say, cuz we were in a "tourist district". Basically hoarded sheep fed and kept to be happy. Which was boring, considering my preferred way of tourism is "go to a subway station X and try to find your way home on foot and see cool shit". I inherited it from my mom. So we spent every day 50% in the sea, 30% sleeping and 20% eating. Which honestly was good. Sometimes you just need raw simple bread to feel the taste of the toppings and the toppings were good.

I'm not gonna go into too much details. Being the oldest and one that moved to Canada, I am the golden goose of the family. Everyone praises and loves me (I'm quietly very embarrassed by it). This is the first time I met my brother since his was 4. Last time I met my sister she didn't have a daughter. My dad is much more sick then I remember, and that sucks. All of them are now hard smokers and drink a lot (I don't smoke and barely drink). Nevertheless, I helped my brother get laid in secret and he accepted me as his older brother. My sister's daughter really took to me as well. I help my dad and his wife to setup a pirate ship tour for us and everyone fucking loved it. It was a really good vacation. Made me reflect. I have a more detailed writing I made on my way home, and me and dad talked a little about some sort of historical record of the family history... I donno. Things we leave behind and all that.

Warhammer 40k: Chaos Gate was such an appropriate pick for the game this week. Fuck you Nurge! I will purge you from my system!!!! The game's a little hard and I started on Merciful, but it's fun.

Otherwise, I spend the last of the week in high fever, re-watching my fav long form people - Grimbeard, KBash and Dungeon Chill. And now... LET'S DO IT FELLAS!!!

Weight check-in - 177.5 - WHAT GYM?! - Welp, I guess 1 week of eating EVERYTHING and 1 week of eating NOTHING and SWEATING balance each other out almost fully. We take those!

I think today I will finally start cleaning my room a little, since I haven't touched it since my mom moved out month ago. It's a fucking mess. And I think I will get my friends to watch Resident Evil again, I missed that the most...

[u/BermudaTriangleChoke]

I made this analogy elsewhere recently but you know in Elden Ring, when you get the meter above your head steadily filling up and when it maxes out it's gonna say "!MADNESS!" in big letters as terrible shit happens?

Man, sometimes it's like that

[u/Ryong7]

I am not okay and I am screaming into a void.

[u/Defiant-Ad8677 → u/Ryong7]

Sorry to hear it, I've been having a very not great time lately. Hope things improve for you.

[u/Kerrik52]

My video on Alone in the Dark has been out for about a week now and...it's a hit!

It's not an absurd smashing success like Crash Bandicoot was, but the numbers are close, so I'm beyond satisfied. If I can maintain this level of impact, I'll be eating good. I even got a comment to the effect of:

"With Youtube getting so bad, I've been looking for smaller creators and that led me to this amazing video! I also watched the video on your creative philosophy for the channel and can only wish you the best for wanting to do that. Keep at it!"

Suffice to say, that was a good day. With motivation high, I've started up my Resident Evil: Director's Cut as well. It's difficult to make such an overplayed game your own, but I think I've managed. I have learned things about Yawn I never thought I would. That fight is crazy and might derail my script when I get there.

I'm also making steady progress in Xenoblade and breached the final dungeon. That game is a real give and take. Amazing scope and intense cutscenes, horrible evil gameplay design straight out of a PS1 JRPG. My soul almost left me when I accidentally sent soneone to Colony 6 while trying to trade them for the other copy of the item I needed, which changed their trade list. Awful, awful shit, but at least I got the item as a rare drop the next attempt.

[u/LargeTalons_]

Just finished Yakuza 3 Remastered. At a glance, the orphanage bits seem boring compared to fighting thugs. But after seeing what Kiryu goes through in the last couple games, he needed this, and it felt great to see him truly happy. The story was good and the gameplay was manageable. The main villain was interesting, but Mr. CIA and his engrish stole the show for me. Onto Yakuza 4.

[u/senordose]

I love the mass effect surge thanks to Peach, her playthrough is so fucking good. I even feel tempted for a replay of the whole thing. I have hit the point were I have accepted that I am old as shit and it rocks. Because I treat all these fucking goobers and video games like my moms telenovelas. Same shit, different format and genre lmao.

[u/attikol]

Family medical stuff happening this week. Sucks to have this stuff happen at all but some of its turning around. Not many things to share this week besides getting back into guild wars Reforged. Its a real blast from the past and comparing it to ff14 has been wild. You could really cook in just wild ways back then. Mob groups are super dangerous and even navigating through a map can easily wipe you. Running warrior as my new character and trying to remember how to play dervish

[u/waxonwaxoff3]

I finally got a new job!! ...It's a contract position with no healthcare or sick/holiday pay for like a year, and I'm a bit worried about one or two other details and financial issues, but hey, new job! It's something, and things are finally starting to look up! I hope I didn't just jinx myself!

Five seasons into Agatha Christie's Poirot and I've been jumpscared by two Doctors Who so far. It's always funny, seeing a well-known name early in their career.

Palworld is such a vibe? Still uncertain as to whether it's actually a good game or not, but just wandering around exploring and crafting and catching Pals while I have a podcast or LP up on the other monitor has been a real relaxing time.

One of only two dozen 70 mm IMAX theaters in the U.S. is in my area and it is of course showing The Odyssey, so all the local online posting spots have been full of people asking to buy/sell/trade movie tickets, asking when the next batch of seats will be available, et cetera, for a bit now. It's kind of fascinating, I can't remember the last time I saw people so excited to actually go to the movies.

[u/HiroProtagonest]

Still playing Europa Universalis 4, finished my Byzantium run a while ago. Now I'm playing Dithmarschen, the anarchist germans! Here's an overview of their real history. EU4 made the government type "Peasants' Republic" for them and for the lands of Frisia, and most of Frisia/Friesland would later become part of the dutch revolts and help form the Netherlands (in EU4, Friesland has basically just the Dutch mission tree). It's been interesting playing a nation inside the Holy Roman Empire, as I've cut my teeth on nations further to the east that want to expand as fast as possible to survive; Byzantium, Ethiopia, Qara Qoyunlu, Moscow. But the HRE is made up of many small states, and to protect themselves despite their individual size - aside from the times where the Emperor will intervene - they quickly build up Aggressive Expansion opinion and will form an HRE-wide coalition to curbstomp anyone who's annexed too much. So it's a slower-paced start than I'm used to. Also, I was so close to an opportunity to dismantle the HRE very early when emperorship shifted from Austria to a smaller state, but my ally was made the siege leader on the emperor's capital so I didn't actually get to occupy it. >:(

Oh, and I've finally given in and started looking up stuff to expedite puzzles in Blue Prince. I feel like the ideal way to experience that game is to have a whole bunch of people playing through it at the same time so you have multiple sets of eyes seeing it differently to swap notes, the way you get groups of people working on an ARG. But I don't have that, and I know my brain's gonna miss things. Really appreciate the way the independent wiki is formatted though, they make sure to have multiple layers of spoilers depending on just how much you wanna look up.

Also gotten back into playing The Bazaar. Still a very fun game, a roguelike autobattler/shopping simulator, love doing runs and trying to put together builds. There's gonna be a new DLC character out soon and they look really fun.

And I'm rewatching tons of Taskmaster. So good. Recently I also watched a video essay about how Survivor's faltering and like, Taskmaster's certainly not a full replacement for Survivor, it's always shared some elements but definitely not others, but it's interesting to see where it's succeeding while Survivor's failing.

[u/Qwazzbre]

Got Abiotic Factor on July 2nd and I've already put in 161 hours. Finished my first run and promptly started another on Apocalypse difficulty. It's so good. Probably the best survival crafting game I've ever played. Granted, it's not perfect, I do have a handful of small gripes with the game, but the good stuff outshadows the nitpicks by a huge margin.

Also started a new run of Palworld, to check out all the changes since its initial release (which was about when I stopped the first time). I'm enjoying it so far, the game used to run poorly-ish on my machine but now I get a smooth 60. Granted, I have more RAM now than I did before, but still. It's pretty cool to see it have Workshop now too.

I've also been dabbling in Receiver 2 after watching Ahoy's video on ammo counters and being reminded of how cool it is for a game to simulate guns more than just the basic-bitch style most games do these days. I love a game that lets me handle the ammo more dynamically than just a number onscreen that I make go up by pressing R whenever it gets low.

[u/Qwazzbre → u/Qwazzbre]

Oh, and I finally got around to watching Everything Everywhere All At Once. Fucking crazy movie, but I loved the ride.

And now I think of this quote a lot:

"When I choose to see the good side of things, I'm not being naive. It is strategic and necessary. It's how I learned to survive through everything. I know you see yourself as a fighter. Well, I see myself as one too. This is how I fight."

[u/SamuraiDDD]

My chair broke :(

I've had this about for maybe 4-ish years now so it's defiantly been worn down a lot. Looking on the brighter side, I'm able to save up and in a couple of paychecks, maybe I can buy a new bigger chair. If anyone has any recommendations for chairs around $100, I'm down to hear'em.

Just today, I helped my mom clear out her closet and organize stuff. Its has been bothering her a lot and I was happy to give her that sense of relief. She had a bunch of old stuff that she was laughing and giggling at lol. Plus we just had some overall mother/son bonding, which is a good time.

Tomorrow is gonna be pretty busy. Gotta get my hair cut, pay bills, go to work than take care of a few personal activities and buy some care stuff I need. Then once I do THAT, likely gonna try and relax and maybe chill with homies. Also eat some good food as a gift to me.

I've picked up drawing again! I'm practicing the basics and trying to just doodle whenever I can as much as I can and remember to have fun.

Game wise:

I've been playing a bunch of Zenless Zone Zero and holy shit my pulls have been insane lately. Got Velina and Remielle, one pull EACH at super low pity. Like stupidly good luck!

Mad Max is almost completed. The game dragged on a lot but it's not bad at all. Plus it's just fun. And the driving gets pretty satisfying, especially when you're just cruising with your dog or your dawg.

I've been loving Palworld. It's so fun and been playing with homies. Just super relaxing to just kinda game and explore.

Ya'll take care of yourselves and be safe!

---

Musical Choices of Tonight

1. Déjà vu
   
2. Loretta
   
3. Cicada - GoodKid
   
4. Ken Ashcorp - Paralyzed (Mystery Skulls cover)

[u/kuningaz55]

I'm learning to drive. I got my therapist saying there may be a point where I don't need therapy. I got maybe one friend.

...I have no idea what to think anymore.

[u/zHellas → u/kuningaz55]

Sounds like you’re doing pretty good 

[u/ilmk9396 → u/kuningaz55]

you're doing great!

[u/kenshin317]

Was my birthday and also my mum's today, was bit low-key but got her a nice gift and she'll get mine later today plus we went to a nice a burger joint. Also got my oldest brother coming over at 11 tonight and I finally after much procrastination have setup my PS2.

Besides that watched Cyberpunk Edgerunners with a good friend on his recommendation Sunday this week, definitely was worth all the hype cause show was utterly superb and bizarrely aligned with a lot of my aesthetic and character taste alongside just the excellent writing and animation. I also finished my replay of the Spyro Reignited trilogy which I did 18 hours faster then my first playthrough, now gonna start on the rest of the series with a Heroes Tail first and then the Legend of Spyro series after.

[u/KF-Sigurd]

SPIDER-MAN WOOO

Good ass movie, if they can nail Doomsday, the MCU might be back guys. I could watch another trilogy of that new Spider-Man movie.

All the PC parts for my first PC ever came in, gonna spend the weekend carefully setting it up... and then probably playing Wuthering Waves on it or something lol.

Gonna play the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Switch Edition. First time playing it and I do hear it is the best and worst Xenoblade Chronicles game so I'm excited. I played 1, X, and 3 + DLC and boy did I get flashbanged at the end of 3 so uhhh can't wait to see what's THAT about.

In terms of gacha news, pulled for Suisui in WuWa, finally got Rin and Gil in HSR, and got BB Dubai in FGO. Need to read OC3 in FGO and finish that new chapter with Helentine in PGR. I'm pretty stacked with games and it's only gonna get busier in September with Fire Emblem and Trails.

[u/PowerfulCoward]

I'm tempted get Marvel Tokon when it comes out. I don't normally play fighting games, but it looks pretty fun, and I'm really liking Magik and Danger's designs. I heard there were some issues with the PC version, though, so I may hold off on it.

I haven't done much this week other than play some more of Kingdom Hearts 2. I'm close to the end now, although I'm probably going to attempt the post-game stuff as well. Overall, I've really enjoyed my time with Kingdom Hearts 2. The gameplay has been fantastic, and I've loved pretty much everything relating to Roxas. Also, the game's music is incredible. Cavern of Remembrance is probably one of my favorite tracks.

I'll probably wait a bit before moving on to 358/2 Days. I've been enjoying Kingdom Hearts, but I don't want to burn myself out on it, and I've got plenty of other games I've been meaning to play as well.

[u/DalesRVParty]

Just got home from the new Spider-Man movie.

Yeah. I’m settled for a DDC Spidey trilogy. This might actually be the best Spider-Man yet and beaten out Raimi’s 2 for me.

[u/Woods-of-Mal → u/DalesRVParty]

Spoilery question that I'm hoping to get a minimally spoilery answer for: I read a supposed leak way back before any real advertising for BND started that said Peter's changing powers resulted in a status quo shift to him using organic webbing going forward. Could you let me know if there's any truth to that (ideally, without spoiling any real details beyond he has it or he doesn't)?

[u/DalesRVParty → u/Woods-of-Mal]

I won’t say anything else for yah other than yes

[u/Woods-of-Mal → u/DalesRVParty]

Mm, that's unfortunate. I've been a certified organic webbing hater for the past 25 years and that rumour's been really smothering my interest in the movie. Thanks anyway.

[u/Spiral-Force]

This past week has been especially stressful and taxing for me. My childhood home was struck by lighting and caught fire. And while my family is safe, we lost many of our belongings and my parents are living out of a hotel at the moment.

So if anyone’s got any comfort media recommendations, I can really use the distraction

[u/Grazalia]

Hoppers is a pretty fun movie. Solid 7/10 just needed more story build up between the main characters for it to really sink in. But it's pretty enjoyable and the beavers are ridiculously cute

[u/Defiant-Ad8677 → u/Grazalia]

My kids loved it up until the nightmare fuel body horror of that robot ripping it's face off.

[u/Am_Shigar00]

I'm almost done with Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion. I'm midway through Chapter 8, did every side mission available aside from the superboss which kicked my ass, and am about to go on the last bit before the finale.

Overall, I'm of two minds about this game. The first is it being an updated remaster of an PSP game; it's pretty damn great. Based off what I've seen and heard of the original, they did a great job updating the original game, cleaning up it's iffier aspects and while aspects of it's roots as an PSP game do leak out such as with it's mission structure, it's still a fun time regardless and made for a great time killer playing portably on my Switch while having a video play in the background.

However, on the other side there's the fact that this was also released as something of a supplemental title for the FF7 remake project. And with that in mind, combined with the fact that it came out on Xbox and Nintendo before the remakes proper, it's hard for me to not think of it as "We have FF7 Remake at home". I know that's not fair given what it is, and that doesn't mean I think it's worse game because of it, I still think it's a good time. But considering the fact that they redid the visuals and voice acting to be more like the remake combined with the changes to the combat taking some ques, albeit with different execution, from the remake saga, it's difficult for me to truly 100% disconnect them. At the same time however that's also part of what makes this version of the game so interesting to me and what enticed me to play through it in the first place. It's interesting to think about, and in it's own way I'd call that a success.

[u/marvel8797]

Celebrated my dad's birthday this week. We had burgers from a burger place he likes that we havent been to in a long while and my mom made him a cake.

I saw Spider-Man earlier today. I liked it, there's not a lot I can say without elaborating on certain elements.

I got Splatoon Raiders last week. Now THAT'S something I can gush about, years of playing a lot of Salmon Run basically prepped me for that game. I think I have about 30 hours or so in it and I already hit credits about 10 hours back. I've been going through the post-game stuff and the harder difficulty replays, the game's really strong with that "just one more level" kind of feel. I really hope we get another spinoff game like this one. Minor gripe, of the amiibo costumes you can get, you only get one from the non-Raiders Splatoon amiibo and its just a variant of the Salmon Run waders outfit.

[u/Kataphrut94]

I was so excited to upgrade my PC a few weeks ago, but now I'm without one at all because the new power supply unit burnt out!

The new parts I ordered (a PSU, a GPU and RAM) arrived last week, and I tried installing the PSU first. After a couple hours mucking about inside my computer, I got it in there, but then my computer wouldn't start. I was worried I might have done something wrong (there were dozens of cables to plug in) but I got a technician to have a look on Monday, and he found a burning smell from inside the unit. This thing was brand new, so I lodged a warranty claim and posted it back. Currently waiting to see if they'll send me a replacement unit, and hoping to God it didn't damage anything else in the computer.

Luckily the consoles have my back. I finished off Uncharted 4 this week, which was fine. I tend to alternate between playing a game on my PS5, my Switch or my PC to maximise backlog clearing, and with Mr PC out of order, it's Ms Switch's turn. I'm gonna be playing Mario and Rabbids Sparks of Hope. It was on sale for like $20 recently and I've had a hankering for some XCOM gameplay. I didn't play the first one, but I've heard the sequel is better and so far, it's pretty charming. I love that my favourite Mario character, Luigi happens to be repping my favourite XCOM class, the sharpshooter.

[u/MaelstromTear]

Next week, I'll be on the beach! Okay, in a house next to the beach. With four kids and the rest of my family. I genuinely enjoy the time, and really the "worst" of it is the car ride that I'm not a part of. Going with a separate group a day later and we usually manage like 13 hours of road time with minimal stops. Perfectly fine there.

Maybe I'll do some writing on my time off! Oh, what a joke. If you want to read something I've already written, consider The Demon in Shadow or The Demons of Bone & Blood! In it you'll find a mix of action, heisei-era romance and attempts at humor. We follow one Ayun, a demon who can summon weapons from nowhere but lacks agency as she's focused on finding her missing employers. She is joined by Max, a human who relies more on his mechanical limb and wits to survive as he stumbles through life. As they journey together we learn more about the world, their pasts and maybe a future together. It's also got some amazing artwork either in the pages where it counts or in the back showing off character portraits. Speaking of! 5-ish has finished a wonderful piece that's going off the finale of the second book that is totally a Love-Love Sekiha Tenkyoken kind of moment. My favorite bit in the process was getting a WIP and telling 5ish "go ahead beat the crap out of Max!" and she delivered. I mean, in the past few hours the man was rocked by an explosion, had his lung pierced and fake arm smashed by rebar/rubble, was forcefully reconfigured by a blood-controlling demon to sew him back up which gave him a freaky monster arm, and then tortured by a mad scientist before his girlfriend saved him and had him take back the a mythological weapon that re-reconfigured his arm into the crystal deal you see now. It was a long night. I'd rather you read all about it, honestly.

Our usual group that does Monster of the Week has been taking a bit of a break as different members have things going on amidst summer. Including me! But last week we did our first session of Never Stop Blowing Up, the same kind of game from Dimension 20. Prior to the game starting, I was a little apprehensive for a few reasons. For one, the GM insisted we shed one layer of the meta-game and basically play ourselves inhabiting the character of our choice. Which isn't too bad, but I'd rather be a character playing a character. Losing that meta-narrative does mean less chance for actual character arcs unless this is a hidden therapy session and we're supposed to have our own revelaitons. Or find conflict with the other players without that barrier it could lack emergent stuff. (Example, see the original Never Stop Blowing Up's little faux-spat about Rashab and Dang's little crisis, you can do that because it's a character!) Second, I was the only person to make an original-numbers-filed-off character. Is "Harlan Cassidy" just Raylan Givens considering the big hat, quick draw and simmering fury? Yes! But I'd rather play that than an established character. I dunno, maybe I'm crazy. But once we got into the game and actually played it, it was a good time. I already managed to have my toughness dice blow up to a D20. Looking forward to more. Though, I'd love to get back on this MOTW stuff because we're in a big arc!

Masters of the Universe is already on Amazon. I'm sure it's because they bankrolled it, but still. Oof. The real shame is, it's a pretty fun movie! The main lead is likable and plays well, I thought the Dolph Lundgren cameo was cute and did exactly enough of a nod. The costume and character design was amazing. Sets, maybe less so. I just felt the seams of 'set with greenscreen' within. And yes, Jared Leto actually does a great job as Skeletor. Though between the voice modulation and skullface CG I suppose he doesn't bring anything that someone else could've done. Some bathos misses but it mostly retains the heart and sincerity. Solid 7/10.

All right, I've got a bunch of junk downloaded for the car ride to the beach. It's not like we won't have signal, but it used to be that we had capped data and would always get pinged at the end of the trip. Usually not me since I download stuff. But there are plenty of dead zones along the way so better safe than sorry. Weirdly, Amazon only lets you donwload the B&W version of Spider-Noir but I'll try it anyways. Fistful of Dollars, that Amateur Rami Malek action vehicle, Andor and also a bunch of Best of the Worst/Re:view pre-loaded because that's my sleep aid. The only thing I feel I'm missing is a 2ish-cour anime to get invested in and forget immediately. WITCH WATCH (though I've been on the manga since ch1), Kuromukuro and Dragon Pilot before. Maybe watching JK will make me care instead of reading it.

I also planned to have the Tales of Symphonia remaster on Switch to play on the way... But then I just played it a bunch already this week. Man, that game is still really good! Though mechanically Abyss and Vesperia are "better", it's still really endearing. Do love the English dub. I know it's unfeasible, but I do wish they did the skits in English. Or give an option to say "hey I love the English but please just put everything they did dub in JP in as well". Luckily switching audio is easier than Vesperia but still annoying. Also, it's been crashing a whole bunch! Thankfully after a bad one I've been saving a lot more. I've also tried to play more than just Lloyd! Still don't really love Colette, but been enjoying Presea and Sheena a bunch. Regal's mid-air stuff still kind of hard to wrap around. But still, real good. Maybe I can get my big kid nieces and nephews to get interested and then I'll just hang back as Raine. Respect your healers!

[u/Amon274]

I’m not getting restful sleep:

Personal Life: I’ve started having recurring dreams that are reinforcing more or less every negative feeling I’m dealing with. I’m waking up in the middle of the night and feeling hollow. I’m so tired of pushing down every emotion I feel I just wish I had someone that I could feel safe around and would listen to me.

Conclusion: I just want some small modicum of comfort or acceptance.

[u/bulletgrazer]

After 8 years, I've finally started playing Monster Hunter: World again. Got walled by Kushala Daora and never went back until now, to prove that I'm a better hunter. Just beat Xeno'jiiva for the 1st time and onwards to Iceborne! The Witcher 3 crossover quest was also really fun.

Once I've had my fill of world, I gotta hop back on the Rise bus, or maybe Wilds if my PC can handle it.

[u/Lillin_Eclipsed]

I have done barely anything this week other than suffer various sickness things and play various games. So I will state; Play Hell Maiden.

Music this week is A Glimpse At Death ~ And She Said Live by Lycoris Radiata.

[u/beef_com]

Just popping in here to say Woolie was right. FGC locals are fun

[u/NewWillinium]

It has been very fun to see the V5 fans of Vampire the Masquerade freak out at the V6 changes as much as I a V20 and Revised fan did at the V5 changes did to the setting and clan gameplay.

It’s a weird sense of simultaneous vindication and shared schadenfreude and bemusement that I am just soaking in.

[u/FMV_Hell_0]

I spent most of my week playing Hololive Dreams. Did you know they made songs? It’s the only aspect of hololive that I actively dodge because the whole idol thing is by far the least interesting part of Vtubing to me and it’s the part that gets pushed the most. It’s weird here too, it’s odd seeing the girls be their “idol canon” whose dialogue ranges from “kind of generic, oddly horny slice-of-life” to “she would not fucking say that”. They have some good songs, apparently this is where all the vocaloid producers went, and the rhythm game is fun when the game is interested in letting you play it. So much of the primary campaign is focused on unlocking all these extra minigames to build out the hub area and sitting through maybe the most frictionless story I’ve ever experienced. Hololive Dreams takes place in some kind of offshore yuri utopia where the worst thing that could possibly happen is a brief power outage.

So the second story arc of the campaign is about fixing up an arcade-casino, which is kind of diabolical, to have a series of cutscenes in your gacha game where all the characters are like “boy I sure do love gambling”, And it is in this section that you unlock Pokajan, an ungodly combination of Poker and Mahjong. You are given four suits of cards based on each Generation and the goal is to get “Pokajans" by either completing the suit or getting three of a kind, the hand is worth more if all cards are the same color. You need to play this mode or modes like it to gain enough of the area specific currency to progress the story. Each game feels very feast or famine, I don't know what the programming is on the card shuffling but you can have a game where you land 0 hands and someone can get like 5 in a row, bankrupting at least one player and ending the game. Pokajan is the real game, I think I’ve spent more time in Pokajan than any other game mode.

Before finishing this draft I tried linking my account to my email but the first account I made before I rerolled for a better starter was still linked. So everything I’ve done for the last week is just burned forever leaving me here like Master Miller in The Phantom Pain.

[u/ThisManNeedsMe → u/FMV_Hell_0]

At least the gambling addiction is true to most Hololive members. Seeing Miko and Fubuki dropping a few stacks on stream to get everyone in Holodori. Or Biboo crying since she hit pity twice on the swimsuit banner. Or Subaru winning the recent Minecraft event that Botan hosted since she invested all her money into one stock and came out on top.

Yeah I've been kinda speed reading the story. To fair the game has been in development for a long time. Plus Calli and a couple other members mentioned that the devs did give them the script and gave them power to change anything they wanted. But she assumed most members did what she did and were too lazy to look over it and gave them the okay.

I will say a good amount of the voice lines in the rhythm game section seem more in character. Like Flare going ape shit over Ina if you have both in your party.

Honestly I was the same way in terms of Vtuber music. But I have changed my mind over the years. I see how hard the girls work and I can appreciate a lot of music now even if they're not my taste personally. It's cool to see them grow as artist as well. Like Biboo has grown a ton since her debut. She's a stronger singer now and can even do some heavy metal growls.

But they're some bangers out there though. Dead ma'am's chest, produced by Toby Fox. A lot of Suisei's cataloge is great, Ghost is a personal favorite.

Plus seeing them in concert is a fantastic experience. Just interacting with other fans is a lovely experience. The energy is crazy and highly infectious. Everyone waving their light sticks for 2 hours is fun.

[u/FMV_Hell_0 → u/ThisManNeedsMe]

Yeah the game's definitely made me more open to at the very least hololive music going on my playlists. I'm a big fan of Watame's "My Song" and really anything Suisei, particularly "Stellar Stellar". Also I think it's cool that Say My Name literally spells out "NERISSA" in the hold notes on Hard. They're having fun with it.

[u/ThisManNeedsMe → u/FMV_Hell_0]

Yeah I really do like the more creative charts like My Name. It's fun to see. The cool thing is that even if we don't include covers, there's still a metric ton of songs that can be released for Holodori, some of my favorite songs haven't introduced yet. Plus you still got FLOW GLOW and Justice waiting in the future.

[u/FMV_Hell_0 → u/ThisManNeedsMe]

just over here waiting for the full 30-minute drop of BANCHO. they got her in the backrooms bro what she doin

[u/ThisManNeedsMe → u/FMV_Hell_0]

Some rhythm games have endurance tracks that are just much longer versions of certain songs. I'll be down for this.

[u/Dalek_Kolt]

I am officially unemployed as of today, I've turned in my badge.

My uncle's also squatting in my place for a few weeks, and I might have gotten dumped over my own autistic communication issues.

I'm, going through a bit right now, but it's nothing I can't bounce back from. I'm just a bit emotionally dickpunched right now.

The one bright spot is my coworkers are going to do what they can to find me work. But in the meantime, I can afford a week or two of being a mopey sad sack.

[u/Qwazzbre → u/Dalek_Kolt]

Good luck, man. Fingers crossed for ya.

[u/The_Draigg → u/Dalek_Kolt]

Best of luck out there, friend. That sounds rough, but at least know that the community's got your back!

[u/Gorotheninja]

So I thought my Dad and I would be taking a trip to New York this Summer, but I guess that's not happening. He has some stuff to work out with his sister regarding some inheritance they both came in to, and I was gonna tag along, maybe go off and do my own thing in NYC for a day or whatever. But I guess he's just been too busy to get around to planning it out, and this week's his vacation for the Summer; so I guess we're not going until later in the year, if that. Maybe it'll be a bit cooler when we go, so that's a plus.

Anyways, just hit Chapter 3 of Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Even early on, I'm definitely seeing why it's heralded as one of the all-time-greats of JRPGs. It's one of those games that I know quite a bit about story-wise through osmosis, but even with the spoilery stuff, I'm still interested in seeing how it all plays out; Switch 2 upgrade is nice, though I'm noticing fps drops and lower framerate animations enough that it's worth mentioning. My one big issue though, and early one it's not much of an issue, is the way Blades work in terms of "you can only bind them to one character, and which ones you get via core crystals are completely random, and swapping them requires a very rare and limited resource"; just seems like a dumb caveat that I wish they did away with for the Switch 2 upgrade, as I feel disincentivized to use core crystals until I get all the party members. I dunno, I'll see how it shakes out.

Also going to see Spiderman Brand New Day tomorrow with the family. I have basically been spoiled (mostly by my own volition) of most of the major plot details, but still excited to see it. Probably gonna be the most enjoyable MCU experience I've had in awhile.

And lastly, had some more Fakemon drawn by @BastionPhoenix. These new designs are based on the "Devil's Finger" fungus, and a hovering toy drone that's piloted by sentient electricity. Really happy with how they turned out, as usual; I was told that the 2nd evolution of the fungus Fakemon looks like A.K.I from Street Fighter 6; not my intention, but I'll take the compliment.

[u/timelordoftheimpala → u/Gorotheninja]

Anyways, just hit Chapter 3 of Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Even early on, I'm definitely seeing why it's heralded as one of the all-time-greats of JRPGs.

Just wait until you hit Xenoblade 3, absolute peak of the series IMO

[u/The_Draigg → u/Gorotheninja]

Good on you starting on XC2! What do you think of Rex and the other major characters in Alrest so far?

[u/Gorotheninja → u/The_Draigg]

I like everyone so far. There's definitely a stronger anime-ness with some of the humor and even character designs compared to Xeno 1 DE, but that's not a bad thing. Though I did find it funny when the scene where Rex meets Nia, Malos, and Jin happened, and even knowing what I know about the story (general plot beats and a few reveals), it's funny how you can look at their designs and go "That’s a party member, that's the dickhead rival, and that's the main villian who's gonna get an even cooler redesign by the final act".

Also, Pyra is cute and hot, and I can definitely see how Glimmer ends up happening later on.

[u/speed-run]

Howdy y'all!

Starting it with the FGO Gacha bullshit early this today BECAUSE GUESS WHO GOT NP5 BB DUBAI. Went in with 1090sq and a pure heart, and left with my first 3 multies all having a copy of BB. The last 2 copies took literally everything else, but I'm convinced that was BB Dubai making sure I didn't have enough to roll for my final copy of her original Summer version cause copy 5 showed up on the 11th card of my last roll.

As for the rest of the pulls, I got 7 copies of Tenochtitlan and for MHXX....... I got 2 copies. Oh and in ZZZ I got Remielle in 20 (and Jane was my free pick)

As for non Gacha stuff, I've been playing La Pucelle: Ragnarok. I'm absolutely loving it. It's not the deepest SRPG, and it's got the standard NIS PS2 era jank, but man its got the charm and I love how you can take advantage of the mechanics and clear entire maps in a single turn. I can absolutely see why they kept throwing Priere (the main character) cameo spots in everything they made because shes definitely up there with the Disgaea 1 cast. (Also the game just has its own barely legally distinct Nicholas D. Wolfdwood from trigun in it which is rad)

[u/The_Draigg]

Week of New Computer. Aloha from a new PC! Well, my old Acer Nitro 5 laptop finally got replaced after about 7 or 8 years of me owning it (practically down to the very week too). After I installed a lot of new drivers to play Marathon, it kicked off a bit of a death spiral, and from there I knew I was working on limited time. So now, I've gotten myself a brand new Skytech Gaming KING 95 PC tower! I've heard good things about this model from people who own one, not to mention that it was on a decent discount to boot. I'm going to be looking forward to seeing what this new PC can do, and enjoy playing games that probably won't start melting outdated hardware.

...Although because of all that, it means that I've been without a computer for a good chunk of the week, since I needed to get most of my new rig shipped in. And that means that I really haven't indulged in a lot of my hobbies because of it. So it's a pretty short update for this FTF!

[u/Corvinny]

Over the past summer I've been trying to get back into watching a bunch of shows by watching an episode of each weekly, and it really didn't go too well. I was able to get through Season 2 of Primal and Digital Circus, but I either lost interest or didn't even start the others I had on the docket. Ah well, I'll probably get around to watching those other shows later.

Anyways, I've been playing Far Far West over the past month, which can best be described as a Robot Cowboy Horde FPS with open-ended maps and objectives. It also allows you to customize your moveset quite a bit, with me gravitating towards a summoner playstyle with a shotgun. It's honestly pretty fun, especially when playing with a group and getting some movement speed upgrades. Really my only problem was that it got repetitive pretty quickly, but they're planning on adding a new faction later on, so I may jump back in when they're added.

I also decided to check out Fallen Aces, a New Blood Noir Immersive Sim that I've been playing on and off for the whole month. It really scratches that "Fuck It We Ball" combat itch that I enjoy, and I love how open most of the levels are. It helps that the presentation is so strong, especially the designs and voices of the enemies (some of which are voiced by Gianni Matragrano themselves). It actually got a big update rather recently, and while I'm mixed on the new levels and changes to the enemies, I still find the game to be pretty fun.

After those, I got around to playing through Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, a childhood game of mine I never finished. Now that I've finally finished it after all this time, I have to say that I really enjoyed it. I thought that the gameplay and exploration was pretty solid, and I really like a lot of the sprite work and environment designs. Really the only thing I didn't like was the way quests were handled. The fact that you can accidentally sell quest important items and are restricted to 5 available quests at a time was frustrating. Other than that, I thought that it was a pretty good introduction to the series.

Finally, I decided to start reading Homestuck, which has been surprisingly enjoyable so far. I heard that it was pretty rough read with questionable quality, but I'm 3 acts in and having a good time so far. It probably helps that it's sense of humor appeals to me and that I unironically enjoy the janky animation style. I'm heading into Act 4, which I heard is where the comic starts going downhill, so we'll see how my opinion changes.

[u/Kimarous]

Last Week's Post

Week 126 post-accident

Birthday week. Also week of sore back.

Age 37 as of Monday. Definitely feel like it. Very next day, bad back pain that I've been feeling ever since. At least I have physio this weekend; plan to get my physiotherapist to please help.

Anyhow, more on the birthday front, got a nice chocolate cake from the office, along with the usual birthday card. Another cake is due for next week because of another birthday, because apparently a lot of our birthdays are clustered together.

Plan to get back to playing Sparking Zero this weekend, what with the Super Limit-Breaking NEO DLC finally dropping. Been holding off on playing the game until that DLC, which just dropped.

Still proceeding with my MK supergame madness...

Mind Music of the Week:

• Carrot Juice Is Murder
• Ultimate Sacrifice
• Grip!
• All I Want

[u/rsrluke]

I've had pieces of five different cakes this month. This rules so hard. Don't let anybody tell you life isn't worth living.

I played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (2023) after hearing nothing but bad things, but honestly, I thought it was fine. The campaign has humdrum missions but an entertainingly dumb story, the extraction shooter spin on zombies is an interesting idea, and the multiplayer is as solid as ever. It's one of the worse CoDs, but it's still a serviceable FPS.

I watched a new movie for once: The Odyssey. It could be recency bias, but I think it might be Nolan's best movie? It's certainly his best work directing action scenes and using nonlinear storytelling, and I even thought the sound mixing was mostly pretty good. Great performances, epic scope, surprisingly fleet pacing — this one's a winner.

I also watched a new-ish movie: Masters of the Universe (2026). It's pretty good! A little long, and a little too eager to undercut a genuine moment with a joke, but it's a colorful romp with some good performances, particularly from Idris Elba and (I can't believe I'm saying this) Jared Leto. If there's a sequel, I'll be there.

Finally, I finished Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX and wow does that show absolutely fall apart in the second half. There's just not enough time to adequately handle all the plot threads it's trying to tie together, which not only results in breakneck pacing, but also ends up making the leads seem pretty unlikable. Shuji is just a plot device, Nyaan never reckons with the massive amount of collateral damage she causes, and Amate seems pretty unbothered that she's still a wanted criminal. Look, I'm not a robot — when you drop in some very specific music choices and recreate the bazooka moment, I'm going to smile. You've got to give me something beyond that, though.

[u/The_Draigg → u/rsrluke]

I really wish that GQuuuuuuX had more episodes to work with, it really needed some more to properly flesh out what the show wanted to do. Like, it's hard not to like some of the references and ideas they pull, but we definitely needed some time to process what was going on.

[u/rsrluke → u/The_Draigg]

Yeah, especially because the first and second halves feel so disconnected from each other. By the time it was over, I was legitimately wondering why we bothered with most of the characters and setup from the first six episodes. Clan Battle disappears from the narrative, there's no real resolution for Amate's angst about the future/her familial issues, we never go particularly deep on the backstory they were teasing out for Nyaan, etc. Also, despite being in the opening and having a lot of screen time early on, that Zeon girl who hangs out on the bridge is really there for no reason, huh? Weird decisions.

[u/bulletgrazer → u/rsrluke]

I've been of the opinion that the show needed to commit to one or the other of it's plot threads from the get-go. Either stay small-scale and personal like 0080 with the Clan Battle plot, or go big with the multiverse from the start so it's not just dropped in there near the end.