James W

Oh wait no Fulghor doesn't have one either, never mind

Also curious to know if there's an Adel invasion somewhere in the Nightreign DLC. Gladius, Caligo and Harmonia all definitely have one which really just leaves him. Free my boy

I guess that's my big thought about this, the number one thing people have been asking for from Nightreign is a little more variety in the base game, and they made a load of (really fun!) new stuff that could alleviate that...but as of now, it's restricted to runs against the DLC bosses

I can see why they'd want to keep it a little special, esp. when it seems less variable than the base map, but if you can only play it on 2/10 Nightlords (and I guess this goes for the new PoIs and invasions too) you're just not gonna see it that much? Wonder if they plan to unlock it at some point

Really like the Great Hollow, but it's weird that it's so restrictive to access? They made 90% of a new map but it's a temporary unlock you have to pay valuable currency to activate, tied to the two DLC bosses, and currently incompatible with endgame content (Everdarks and Deep of Night)

We finished the Nightreign DLC - took maybe 5 runs for the Balancers and 2 for the Dreglord. Good stuff. Liked Balancers most I think, it's a genuine 7-vs-3 and easily one of From's best-designed multi-enemy fights, overwhelming at first but controllable once you get a handle on their behaviour

It was originally released as freeware, but the full version with voice acting and extra content is the only one with an English translation, which is okay because the VA is really good. Suze is a particular standout I think, I like when she says omae naa

The horror itself maybe leans a little creepypasta-y, but the game has a good instinct for balancing tone, and the aquarium and its inhabitants are as benign or whimsical or eerily beautiful as they are hostile. I was surprised how attached I'd gotten to them by the end

Went back to finish up アクアリウムは踊らない/The Aquarium Does Not Dance

Came away liking it a ton. An easy recommendation to anyone with nostalgia for late 2000s/early 2010s RPG Maker horror games like Ib and The Witch's House, I think it's up there with the best of them

Really cannot be overstated that the first chapter of her story is a delirious murder sequence followed by squishing...something on a wall and twisting into the most contorted, cat-like pose so she can lick it

Before the Nightreign DLC came out I saw someone post something to the effect of "I hope Undertaker is an actual freak, I hope she eats bugs" and I know that person has been having a fantastic 24 hours

I feel like batter would make the most sense to me even with it being cooked

A Grand Servant loadout screen from FGO showing Grand Saber: Ibuki-Douji Grand Archer: Oda Nobunaga (Archer) Grand Lancer: Vritra Grand Rider: Queen Medb Grand Caster: Circe Grand Assassin: Shuten-Douji Grand Berserker: Morgan Grand Extra 1: Oda Nobunaga (Avenger) Grand Extra 2: Draco/Beast of Sodom

The gang's all here

A crudely edited meme of a wikipedia page for "Nun Syndrome" with the description "Instead of brain there is Undertaker". An accompanying image shows a human skull filled with an image of the Undertaker from Elden Ring: Nightreign, a clergywoman with white clothing and a leather hood and gloves

It's just gonna be like this for a little while I think

she has won my heart with her body horror and impressive golf form

This is kinda why I object to MTPE on principle. MTL output fundamentally lacks this understanding. And unless you reach into the guts and reconstruct it (which imo is the defining quality of TRANSLATING), the final product will be human-polished but built on the garbled internal logic of a machine

that sounds painful

A cloud of my most commonly used emojis on Bluesky over the past year. I used two in the entire year, one chef's kiss hand and one thumbs up

This was funny. I will never use emojis

A word cloud of my most used words on Bluesky over the past year. There are too many to list, but it's a scattering of game titles, common game terminology, and various filler words. There's very little variation in word size aside from one gigantic "GAME"

feel like I'm getting called out for all my writing tics

I honestly don't rate Nightreign's story or character writing especially highly, but I do like the concept of the Nightfarers as found family and I love seeing art of them just hanging out

PVで円卓で誰よりもDLCを楽しみにしている夜渡りが誰なのか分かってしまったね
#NIGHTREIGN

She really does just pull that ult spear thing right out of her mouth huh

YouTube video by Bandai Namco Entertainment America ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN The Forsaken Hollows | Undertaker Character Trailer

ANOTHER 200 HOURS OF NIGHTREIGN

youtu.be/Z8qzE__2TTc?...

Solomon from FGO looking face-on with a dead-eyed stare

Kotomine Kirei with the same expression except somehow worse

Tohno Shiki with a similar expression except wider-eyed and more intense

I'm putting together a team

To me, it's just the unsolicited nature of it. Packaging design is more about making sure I have a nicer experience with something I've already chosen to devote my attention to. An ad is actively trying to get in my way to sell me something, which is obnoxious even if it looks pretty

Beat the campaign in Sektori (on the default difficulty, anyway)

Very fun game, I'm glad I stuck with it long enough to get this far

I could stop now or I could keep going and become a twinstick shooter sicko, which I am considering but I'm not sure I have that kind of time

Thank you! Honestly, it kinda feels like a technicality that I passed N1 - I don't think I was at the linguistic level people associate with the qualification at the time, I just slammed a bunch of kanji and vocab - but it was still a great capstone to a year of genuinely hard study

Honestly, one of the reasons I'm reluctant to give out Japanese study advice is because the deciding factor in my journey was "I was lucky and privileged enough to spend a year studying Japanese for 12+ hours a day at minimal personal expense" so there's a limit to how relevant my experiences can be

Although I will admit I probably shouldn't have passed the N1 when I did. I'm confident I could do it on merit now, but my original pass was more evidence of how much the JLPT rewards memorizable knowledge than a testament to my practical language skills

2012 - start studying in high school
2013 - take classes in university
2014 - passed N4
2015 - exchange year in Japan
2016 - passed N1

a little insane now that I look back on it, actually. I studied hard on my exchange year

I went back to it and almost beat the world 3 boss so maybe I do have what it takes after all