Vertz505

Genuinely one of the funniest hot takes I've ever read. Lists some of the best JRPGs on the PS2 and says "They are bad, actually" -- maybe you just don't like RPGs or something?

Look how they massacred my boy...

Spy Family, vol. 13 + 14, Tatsuya Endo

This is still a super fun manga! Consistently goofy but with very poignant moments. Volume 14 features a fun murder mystery side plot that had me laughing the whole way through.

Daemons of the Shadow Realm vol 6, Hiromu Arakawa

Fun to return to this after a break. It still feels like it's building up to some more clear, big conflict at this point. There are a LOT of characters to keep track of. But the action is still good!

The Dragonbone Chair, Tad Williams (reread)

My wife got the Broken Binding edition of this series - she didn't like it lol, but I did! Fun to reread after ~15 years😅 VERY slow burn story, a lot of mystery, major cliffhangers for the rest of the series. I'm surprised I remembered as much as I did!

Finished Quartet from @somethingclassic.bsky.social -- very glad I got this one! It's a simple RPG, mostly linear, but with a combat system that allows from some nice combinations. It is fairly easy to create overpowered combos this way, but the core gameplay is fun, music is good, story satisfies!

7th Son: Descent, by J. C. Hutchins

Took a long time to get through this one, started it during a beach vacation and just got super stuck. It's fine, 3.5/5, very slow. The main characters are all clones of the villain, all with similar names. I kept losing track of them. Interesting ideas 🤷

Another four job fiesta done!

Mastering red mage gives dual cast (2 spells in a turn). Time mage has quick, which gives two turns after casting. 2x quick and meteor (4 non-elem, random damage hits), then 2 of 2x meteor destroys all bosses in the final dungeon.

Blue magic is top tier, as always.

I, for one, love Mario's iconic bolo tie

Twitch Twitch is the world

Capsule machine time once again -- we got Demon's Crest 100% last time, which I intend to learn in December. What's next? www.twitch.tv/vertz505

Time for the capsule machine to decide my fate once again! Starting with some music and chatting about upcoming plans: www.twitch.tv/vertz505

I never finished it as a kid because I can't stand the gameplay feel. We SMB3, so we just played that instead haha

Me a few days ago: 10:xx will probably be hard for me to get with current strats

Me today: just kill the last boss quickly, sub-11 achieved!

I still really dislike SMB2 as a game, but the run is fun, at least when it goes right 😅

Time for some SMB2 Any% practice and runs! Can I conquer my nemesis? www.twitch.tv/vertz505

First round of random capsule games are in! A few casual games came out first:

Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP (replay after ~13 years lol)
FF7 (the OG).

Then, of course, my nemesis run appeared, courtesy of @gamertank.bsky.social -- SMB2! After some practice, I got a PB, will keep going!

Twitch Twitch is the world

Time to let the capsule machine decide my speedrun or casual game fate! twitch.tv/vertz505

My summer work schedule has finally settled down, so I can get back to streaming more often. And I have a new exciting thing - a capsule machine I won during Speedromizer!

Tomorrow ~ 11am ET, I'm going to draw a random game and speedrun it or casually play it! I have an even mix of options.

Short version of my thoughts on the Tales of Elliot demo:
* Game feels good! Combat is fun, exploration is fun.
* Magicite and equipment combos will be fun to experiment with.
* Music and audio in general is good.
* Begging for a toggle for field commentary from the fairy. Far too much of it now.

Favorite Mix commands
Dragon Power: +20 levels, awesome for some damage calcs
Succubus Kiss: drain HP, calc related to level and magic stat. Easily did 4-5K damage, better than regular Black magic for most of the run.
Death Potion: instant death on non-heavy enemies, including some bosses!

Finished up my FFV Four Job Fiesta! Offline this year because summer is always a mess with work and trying to stream. Pretty easy run -- Black, Blue, Red mages, and Chemist to round it out. !Mix on a Black Mage is absurdly good. Final boss is very easy with this combo.

Beyond the Clouds vol 1-5 - I liked it, but mostly just ok
Daemons of the Shadow Realm vol 3-4 - new favorite, great as usual from Arakawa

And that's it - a lot of manga to clear off the to-be-read shelf. Working on some novels next!

Ok, I was bad about updating this thread. Books I finished since this one:

Perdido Street Station - 4/5 stars
Code Name Verity - 3 stars
Choujin X vol 7-8 - good-so-far/5 stars
Yu Yu Hakusho vol 14-19 - great, but rushed ending
A Man and His Cat vol 7-12 - cute and fun!

More below!

Vacation time!

The feel of first try, but barely making it, is my favorite 😅 preference toward challenge, though!

If there's a capybara anywhere, it's automatically the star of the show!

|￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣|
Hi, our game is an 🇷 🇵 🇬 with...
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🗸 a main character that will die in 6 hours
🗸 a dynamic turn-based combat system
🗸 a mystery to solve

🗸 a demo on Steam (°ㅁ°˶) !!

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Hopefully finishing Enter the Matrix on GameCube today! A few more driving levels, then the final missions. twitch.tv/vertz505

Time for Enter the Matrix on a GameCube! Tank controls and loading times, here we come -- twitch.tv/vertz505

My wife collects first edition Nancy Drew books, I showed her this and she was confused and amazed lol. Might have to watch this later

Twitch Twitch is the world

Time for some Godzilla: Monster of Monsters practice in prep for Speedromizer! My run is next Sunday, ~6:30pm ET. Come hang out and chat! twitch.tv/vertz505