WickedCestus

I guess this might be a good place to post this. I'm gonna be living away from home for ~6 months starting next month and my only game hardware will be a 3DS. Trying to stock up on long/cool games for the trip, and would welcome suggestions. My current list is: Persona Q (already 30 hrs in) Majora's Mask Radiant Histora 9-9-9 Virtue's Last Reward Luigi's Mansion They're mostly pretty long but I think I'll have a decent amount of downtime so one can't be too safe . I'm thinking about picking up Bravely Default as well.

I'll be doing a brief long-distance stint with my girlfriend for 4-6 months starting next month. We've been together three years so I think we will be able to work out, especially because there is a definite time when I will be coming back and we will be moving out together (we have never lived together). I will definitely be trying to keep in mind a lot of the advice from you guys. We really enjoy phone calls with each other already which is nice. Main problem is trying to manage my terrible fear and unfounded jealousy. And the timezones will be quite different (I will be in Japan, her in BC, Canada). So, I guess the main thing I'm worried about is myself constantly freaking out. Hmm. Speaking of freaking out, I have (sort of) taken a page out of the Dan Ryckert book (bear with me) and begun keeping track of my moods each day. Basically it's just a chart that has how I felt early in the day, late in the day, plus how much I slept, if I exercised, etc. I'm trying to figure out how/why I get my lows and what I can try to do to manage it. If I can (kind of) predict when I will feel worse then I can maybe manage it better? It would certainly be better than randomly waking up and feeling awful for a week. Tho maybe all I will find out is that it's essentially random. At the very least, it will be something I can look at and say "well, I have empirical proof that I don't feel this terrible all the time and it is possible for me to be happy."

Those are my favourite OPs from those shows. Zetsubou-sensei had some darn cool OPs and EDs. God, I loved that show. Should do a re-watch soon.

I still like Danswers but I obviously take everything with a huge grain of salt, especially coming from Ryckert. Sometimes, their advice is real weird, but I feel like it's less of a show where they're trying to tell people what to do and more of a platform for them to just say how they feel about a whole bunch of topics, which is both good and bad. I find the different perspectives of the guests is often more interesting than the actual advice. My favourites have been the ones with Danielle, Tamoor Hussain, and Vinny.

I didn't think I was going to buy the game, but I watched the quick look on Giant Bomb, saw that I was doing pretty well in terms of not spending this month, and decided to plop down the 20 bucks on PC. The servers have been down when I've tried to play it so far, but I played through a single-player season and had a great time. The single-player reminds me of a Mario sports game in its simplicity. Every real sports game has a complicated season mode where most of your time is spent not actually playing the game, when really a standings board and cool team names is all I need, sometimes. In terms of the actual game, I find it really cool how it's actually fun to be a single part of a team sport. The EA Sports games have tried this, and it's always super boring, has a janky camera, etc. But it's a really cool idea! I guess all you needed to was abstract it and create an environment where just moving your character is really fun. It's really satisfying to pull back at the right moment during a battle for the ball and loop around with a boost to take that perfect shot. It reminds me of when I used to play minor league ice hockey. There's a strong feeling that even the little things you do, like pushing the ball away from an opponent or towards their side of the arena, are important and are helping your team. Basically, I like when games make you feel like you don't need to be the one getting all the goals/kills/captures to be a helpful part of the team. I'm excited for the servers to go back up and see what it's like to play with real people, but honestly I think if all I had was the single player I'd still be quite satisfied for the price. It just feels cool to play.

Thanks. It means a lot to hear this stuff. Like you, Bjorn, I have spent a long time trying to deny there was anything wrong. It feels good to finally say it. I have been trying to exercise more lately and watching what I eat. I have a consistent weight because I'm young and weird but when I don't feel good I tend to overeat until I feel sick and then keep going. I'm trying to work on that impulse, but it's hard. Hopefully, like you said, medical help (be it medication or therapy or w/e) will give me the boost I need. And thanks, Mangela. I have never been on prescription medication of any sort before and I'm really unsure of what it's going to do or how it would help. I don't really remember what it was like not having these feelings. On one hand I'm scared of the idea of taking pills for my brain (which I've heard is a common worry), but on the other hand if it'll help I'm willing to try. Thanks a lot for the support.

Reddit is indeed a very sad place to go to. I browse the front page sometimes for cool gifs and maybe a joke or two, but if you probe any deeper it gets bad quickly. I've heard there are good subreddits but none of the ones pertaining to my hobbies are that good. And yeah, I can totally see how some of the things I thought when I was in the younger years of high school could've easily evolved into the hate and grossness that goes on there if I hadn't somehow become associated with the right sort of people. Luckily I was made more aware of these things fairly early before I was ingrained in my shittiness, but the longer you let these things linger and feed them the harder it is to change.

Congrats Vasari! I finally talked to my mom today about my depression and am scheduling a doctor's appointment for next week. I never told anyone other than my girlfriend because I tend to be mostly fine for a week or more, and then will have 3-4 days of being at my lowest. This has been consistent for 18 months now outside a few-month-period early last year where I felt terrible every day and only really left my room to go to work where I worked alone at night. No one really noticed other than my girlfriend because I am still functional at work and school (other than failing one class) and whenever I started to talk about it to my friends I would hide it in jokes and other stuff. I sort of realized a few weeks ago that even though I have been going to school, have a bunch of career things look good, and am travelling to Japan next month on an exchange program, day-to-day I do not feel better. I have constantly thought that it was something I had to change in my life, but I moved house, started going to school, and broke up (and got back together) with my girlfriend before realizing that there's actually something wrong with my brain and not everything else. Now I'm worried that I'm overblowing things or straight-up lying. When I feel good, I feel like the depressed days aren't real, and when I feel depressed, I feel like I've never had a good time in my life. I've been told that's normal, but who knows. During the last few weeks I have been staying up most nights and have had to call my girlfriend almost every night because I couldn't stop thinking about just giving up on everything. I did not plan on telling anyone but my mom asked me today while I was in a particularly rough mood and I finally decided not to just say I'm fine. Turns out my brother went through a much rougher period of depression a few years ago (that I didn't really know about until now) so it seems like my parents know what the process is like. On one hand, I feel better now, but on the other hand it has brought a whole bunch more worries (not that I ever have trouble finding something to worry about). Sorry if this is weird since I've never really posted on here before. I have no one else to talk to about this other than my girlfriend and I just felt like writing a bunch of stuff down and putting it somewhere. I'm sure at least some of you have gone through something similar.

Steins;Gate definitely starts slow, and then ramps up in the back half. As far as I remember, the first 5-6 episodes are just introducing the characters and setting up the main ideas of the plot. After that, things actually start happening and I found it pretty exciting.

Downloaded Nanostudio and have been playing around with it a bit. This is more of the sort of thing I was looking for, and free! Thanks for the suggestion clyde. Maybe I will make something that sounds OK.

Other than messing around with a trial of FrootyLoops very little, I have no experience making music, other than poorly playing a guitar for a few years. You've made me curious about this Music Creator 7. I'm honestly only looking to poke around with it for a spot of fun, and maybe make some stuff I would like to listen to myself. Nothing professional. Do you think it would be a good fit for a beginner like me or are there other better options?

My thoughts go out to your landlady, Mangela. I've been thinking a lot lately about the people I know in life who are truly kind. There are some people in this world who have the ability to only make the world better, even if it is in the smallest ways to a small amount of people. As a young person, it's easy to see life as a challenge to pursue your own goals. There are people in life who really put that into perspective for me with their generosity and positive attitudes. Often, it is simple things like a genuine smile that can change someone's day. For example, today, I was feeling a bit down about where I am with some stuff in my life. I went to get a haircut, and the hairdresser was a nice lady who gave me a smile when I came in. Things like that can really help a person out. There's a quote in Porco Rosso where he says, "Only the good die." Obviously it's not true, but it seems sometimes that bad hands often get dealt to those least deserving.

Now that would be an episode I can get behind! I shall remain a faithful listener for this week

Didn't end up watching Time of Eve, as I watched part of the first episode and it didn't grab me. Instead I watched most of Ping Pong. Not sure if this disqualifies me from being on the show. I could always just run away once you start talking about it.

Nintendo can't win with some people. They can't make new stuff. they can't repeat their old franchises, and they can't rework their old franchises. These are the same people who considered Metroid Prime a travesty when it was announced. Personally, this Metroid game makes a lot of sense. Japanese players seem to love those co-op boss-fighty experiences. (Monster Hunter, Lost Planet, etc.) Oh well. I like what they're doing right now. Wii U and 3DS have some awesome games, and I trust them to make more. Really confused about Yoshi's Woolly World coming out 4 months later in NA than anywhere else, though. I was excited to play that game with my girlfriend and now it seems it'll come out right after I begin to live far away

I didn't think I was gonna buy anything, but then I saw Valkyria Chronicles for 5.49, and I had 50 cents in my Steam Wallet, and I thought, "well..." so it begins.

As a person who has 10 books worth of opinions about Deadly Premonition, I have found D4 to be very disappointing. You're right Danielle when you say the game is just wacky. While Deadly Premonition had a lot of ideas that no one except me found interesting, it did at least feel like it was trying to push something forward. It really committed to creating an environment that felt lived in and well-realized. I am the kind of person who can forgive terrible early-3D PS1/PS2 graphics because they are what I grew up on, so maybe that helped me get into the world, but there was also the fact that all the characters had routines and actual personalities, as opposed to D4's one-gimmick "characters". I know I'm especially harsh on the game compared to people who didn't like Deadly Premonition or who just thought it was wacky, but as much as it feels stupid to say, Deadly Premonition felt reserved and subdued compared to D4. Yeah, it was goofy. The music was often mis-timed or just completely out-of-sync with the tone of the scene. The dialogue had a lot of awkward pauses, strange turns of phrase, and just baffling character moments. But behind it all it felt like there was actually an interesting story to be told, and the characters (even the side ones) felt like they had something to them. Even the Pot Lady (Log Lady stand-in), who you only meet to drive around and hear her rant about her pot, had a backstory that you could learn about. Plus if you explored enough you'd find characters interacting in ways that never even come up in the main game, like Diane (museum owner) going over to visit Polly (hotel owner) on certain nights to have dinner and keep her company. That is a subtle character moment that is never shown in a cut-scene; it is purely player-discover-able and actually quite fascinating to people like me! In D4, I felt immediately annoyed by the completely one-note "woah isn't this a wacky idea for a guy" characters. David, Forrest, and Amanda are OK, but - forgive me for forgetting the names - the panicked lady in the airplane, and the fashion designer just blew me away with their complete nothingness. They are catchphrase characters. They are nothing. It blows my mind that it is even the same person making these games. D4 feels to me like a game inspired by Deadly Premonition, not one by the same person. I do really like the art style though, for what's that worth. (Also this is super just me but I don't like the swearing in D4. It just feels weird.) Sorry for the rant. I'm really lame and care a lot about dumb Japanese video games. Speaking of those, I too played Neko Atsume! I am a person who tries to know Japanese so I found it kinda fun to see how well I could get around those menus and the cat animations were pretty cute. After a few days I saw all the cats I wanted to see and then I thought "Okay!".

Yeah, Ping Pong is definitely going on my list right now. Looks super cool. I'm going to try and watch Time of Eve at some point next week and see how my availability works out. I've been really interested in this from the start but the timing has been poor for me and I have a ton of anime blind spots that coincided with what you guys wanted to talk about . Hopefully it's not too late for new people to get involved.

I always read it as "Opening Promotion", but I never quite figured what the ED would be. Probably just some weird Japan-exclusive abbreviation that caught on.

I really liked Paul Ryckert's comments on fatherhood last Danswers, and his admiration for Vinny was just a nice thing to hear. I thought Paul would be a terrible guest because I was worried they would just be too silly, but he's gone through some stuff with his divorces and being a very young parent that has given him lots of useful experience. It's was interesting to hear him talk in-depth about his life, and made me realize that even if he wasn't successful by most standards, he was comfortable with his life and his family. Gives a dumb young guy like me some perspective on what's important in life. The Beastcast is amazing. Most podcasts come out early in the week so having a good one for the weekend is nice, and it's early enough in the run that it's exciting just to see where it will go. Austin fits in so well.

I've only ever seen Ghibli's Miyazaki-directed movies, and I definitely agree that they are all over the place. I absolutely adore everything about Kiki's Delivery Service and Porco Rosso, but some of his other movies like Howl's Moving Castle and Princess Mononoke fall completely flat for me. What I love about Kiki and Porco is the deeply personal nature of the stories and the brilliant use of "magical realism" settings. Watching those movies just feels like hanging out with a really cool person. The plots aren't anything astounding but the characters feel really genuine to me. Ponyo and Totoro are both also really good but I don't think they quite reach the highs that Porco and Kiki do. (I am restraining myself so hard right now. I could talk about Ghibli for hours/pages.) (I think I will watch My Neighbours the Yamadas tonight. Maybe Nausicaa too...Heck maybe I should watch Porco Rosso again while I'm at it.)

I would be so down for a Ghibli episode. In my experience I've found almost everyone I've talked to about Ghibli has a different favourite Ghibli film, and interesting reasons why.

I've spent today reading Austin's articles and god damn he's good. One of the few people out there who can write about games in a non-boring, non-self-indulgent way. Really excited to see what he does on GB. Plus, he was real good on the Beastcast today.

I didn't finish the whole thing, but I liked what I heard! I didn't recognize most of the stuff you guys talked about, but I enjoyed the discussions and everyone seemed pretty natural. Good work everyone. Pretty good stuff for a first recording. Any plans for a second yet?