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Pahrak Model ZX

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Blog Entries posted by Pahrak Model ZX

  1. Pahrak Model ZX
    I've made it to the second island and have cleared two of the three Trials there, just want to see if I can make myself level my team a little before taking on the last one.
     
    Started with Rowlet, obviously. I named him Boko and he is simply phenomenal. Not only is Rowlet the cutest Pokemon ever designed, but it's pretty darn powerful too, and Boko's only grown stronger since evolving into a Dartrix. He was all I used for a while so he's a few levels ahead of the others. I'm trying to give him a bit of a rest, but I may need to rely on him in the next Trial too.
     
    I was sure to catch a Mudbray as soon as I could. Luckily, the Pokemon I have named Onepu came with the new Stamina ability, which increases his Defense every time he is hit, which is pretty great. He came knowing Bulldoze, and it didn't take long to learn Highhorse Power (95 power, 95 accuracy); I didn't think he'd become a powerhouse until evolving, and now I'm almost afraid to see how powerful that'll make him!
     
    I also spent some time getting a Cubone, Wargoyle. She's been pretty solid from the get-go too, though her typing is redundant with Onepu's for the time being. I need to be careful about evolving her--apparently Cubone from Alola only evolve at night, at level 28 and up, and since Moon inverts the time of day...I want to get this right so that she can evolve ASAP, and maybe take on the next (Grass-themed) Trial.
     
    And just before logging on I caught a Wimpod, Podzilla. It was...simultaneously difficult and easy. See, to catch Wimpod you have to actually catch it. It appears on the overworld and runs into a hole in the ground as soon as it sees you, so I didn't intercept it the first time. But once I did, one Quick Ball was all it took, thank God, and though her moves aren't great I'm confident in saying she'll fare better than a Magikarp would, and I know she'll have comparable payoff.
     
    I really, really want an Alolan Sandshrew, but those are on island 3 apparently, and then the last slot is reserved for Lunala. It'll be a Ghost-heavy team, but I'll cope.
     
    One thing that bugs me though: when encountering wild Pokemon, they can now call for help from other wild Pokemon. This is involved in chaining for shinies and high IVs, which is all well and good, but when two Pokemon are out you can't throw Poke Balls. And once you knock out one, the other one can call out another Pokemon right away. And then do that again. And again. And. Again. It's really rather frustrating in practice, I've found. But the only other Pokemon I want to be absolutely sure to catch before beating the game is Alolan Sandshrew. Once I beat the game and start hunting to fill the Dex, maybe I'll have more capacity to be patient with this mechanic...and more powerful Pokemon who can wipe out reinforcements in one fell swoop.
     
    So yeah, Moon is fun thus far! I'll make another post if I come across anything else I feel like saying.
  3. Pahrak Model ZX
    You know, I really enjoyed making my dramatic reading of the Piraka Rap.
     
    Logically this should be followed by a dramatic reading of Creeping in My Soul, but...Creeping in My Soul kind of already sounds like a dramatic reading, so I don't know if my version would really sound all that different.
     
    2007 was terrible.
     
    I don't know what do y'all say, yea or nay?
  4. Pahrak Model ZX

    Escapism

    By Pahrak Model ZX,

    I’ve seen other people making lists of good things that are happening soonish so that they have something else to focus on and I really have no clue what else to do. So we’re gonna think about things that don’t suck here on Mt Coronet! (This means you, vampires.)
     
    Let’s see…oh, there’s an episode of Steven Universe next week! A half hour special on Thursday. And I believe more new episodes in early December?
    Not to mention next week is Pokémon Sun and Moon! Of course, they’ve already leaked online so we know everything already. I’m cool with discussing it with you, but we should probably use spoiler tags. I think it mostly looks good from what I’ve seen…aside from a few things like one of the Pokémon I was most looking forward to being a version exclusive and forcing me to switch my pre-order. I’m going to try and pretend this is my biggest problem right now.
     
    Hm, I am really enjoying this current arc in Dragon Ball Super. Next week’s episode looks particularly good judging by the preview, and I’m really interested to see how this resolves and what’s coming next. I think Goku and Vegeta might finally be catching up to Beerus, which means we can start bringing in bigger and badder enemies, and that’s gonna be cool. Not to sell the current arc’s villain short, though—he’s the first real villain Super has had, and I really liked how this arc came together. Zamasu might be able to replace Cell as my favorite villain in this franchise. Honestly this is probably the most I’ve ever enjoyed Dragon Ball, due in part to this all being new stuff I can’t just look up online.
     
    I don’t know if I mentioned this here: the Steins;Gate 0 visual novel is being officially released in English at the end of the month! Still no news on the anime, but this means I should be able to watch someone else play the novel through December, so no more dodging spoilers!
     
    And I mean, I guess Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming up. I’m not much of a holiday person anymore, but who knows, maybe I’ll indulge.
     
    Early next year brings us Kingdom Hearts II.8, which should be interesting. Following that should also be some more Kingdom Hearts III news, and I am looking forward to something on that. Oh, and Unchained will be updating then as well…though, I still haven’t managed to beat Mission 475 or get much Admantite…
    Though, the Scorpio Charm being given out this week in Unchained is adorable. And, looking it up, there are indeed more such charms of Chirithy imitating the Zodiac signs, so I’m looking forward to seeing those go around.
     
    Star Wars Episode VIII is next year! Late, but…next year. And there is Rogue One this year, though admittedly I haven’t been paying any attention to that. I’ve really only ever followed the Episodes to be honest.
     
    Ah, Nintendo Switch as well. When did they say, March I think?
     
    Hmmmm, I’m probably forgetting some things, but the beauty of blogs is that people can add to this if they want. I’ll just sit down and play my Azure Flute for now.
  5. Pahrak Model ZX
    (I’ve been in a FFV mood.)
     
    We start on Aqua Magna. A Toa of Air and his trusty Dikapi go to investigate a Toa Canister that has fallen from the sky, and end up teaming up with a Toa of Water who rules over a nearby Wahi (no big deal) and an old Toa of Earth who has lost his memories. They convince a Toa of Fire with a pirate ship towed by a giant Tarakava to take them to the Suva of Air—unfortunately, the Suva breaks apart just as they reach it, but the Toa recover powerful masks and are instructed by a local Turaga to save the other elemental Suvas.
     
    Along the way the Toa of Earth gets back his memories and tells you he and some other Toa from another planet visited Aqua Magna once and used the Suvas’ power to seal a Makuta, and if all the Suvas break that Makuta will be free again. Every Suva breaks. (But you get new masks each time one does!) The Toa of Earth uses his Toa Canister to chase the Makuta back to his home planet of Bara Magna, and the other three Toa find another Toa Canister, go after him, and have to be broken out of Makuta jail. About this time they have their first encounter with a Dark Hunter, one of Makuta’s minions who keeps reappearing and eventually becomes their friend.
     
    The Toa find the Suva on Bara Magna but the Makuta follows them and tries to destroy them. The Toa of Earth breaks free of the Makuta’s hold, shrugs off numerous shattering blasts, and then channels a Nova Blast through his bare fists to force the Makuta to retreat. The Toa of Earth then dies, but gives his masks and a Toa Stone to his favorite Onu-Matoran who joins the party in his place. The Makuta still manages to destroy the Suva, and Aqua Magna and Bara Magna fuse back into Spherus Magna.
     
    A talking Dermis Turtle who likes to make fun of the Toa of Air tells you to find legendary weapons hidden around the world by Artakha, but you don’t gotta do that if you don’t want to. The Makuta gains power over the Zone of Darkness and starts sending everything there, so the Toa go and beat him up inside the Zone of Darkness. Some of them might die, but if they do they get better soon after, and then they all return to their normal lives and occasionally meet up to ride Dikapi together. The End.
     
    (I mean, if you really want to, you can try to fight the Kardas Dragon and Marendar inside the Zone of Darkness, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Though you can scrape by on Marendar if you get one of your Toa to master the Calix-Garai-Kakama combo.)
     
    Tune in next time when I summarize FFVII, starring Spike, Toa of Angst.
  6. Pahrak Model ZX
    November already? Here’s something to give thanks for. (Because Thanksgiving? I know it’s not my best one, but none of you laughed at my Earth Wind and Fire joke in September so I’m not breaking my back trying to find a better one.)
     
    Genesect is available at GameStop! I’m not sure why it wasn’t saved for December, being the last Pokémon in Gen V National Dex order, but hey, Genesect is cool! Go get one if you don’t already have one!
     
    Come to think of it, Genesect was the first (and thus far only) Bug-type Legendary! Right now Poison is the only type without a Legendary. Or…could that be about to change?!
     
    GEN VII HERE WE GO!
  7. Pahrak Model ZX
    Kingdom Hearts first, since there’s less.
    -Sora’s going to be in World of Final Fantasy as DLC. Haven’t been following this so eh
    -1.5 and 2.5 are being put together as one collection on PS4. So once this, 2.8, and III are all out, you can have the entire series on one console! I really need a PS4!!
    -The
    has been released. Master Aqua…-Two screenshots for KHIII were also shown, and it appears we’re getting new/modified Drive Forms? One picture shows “Guard Form”, which uses the Keyblade shield we’ve seen previously and has a yellow color scheme. The other is “Power Form”, though…I’m not sure it’s different from the standard form we’ve seen? Also they edited the screenshot so we couldn’t see the new Keyblade he’s using. Boo. But Drive Forms, that’ll be cool to have those back!
     
    Okay then, on to the
    !-The final evolutions of the starters are confirmed! Popplio’s final form, Primarina, is Water/Fairy like everyone expected. In a shocking twist, Rowlet’s final form, Decidueye (how do you pronounce that?) is Grass/Ghost, and Litten’s final form, Incineroar is Fire….DARK! Oh thank God, that was a close call. Anyway they all have new moves too, I hope this stays a continuing trend.
    -The Island Guardians have all been revealed! In addition to Tapu Koko there’s Tapu Lele (Psychic/Fairy), Tapu Bulu (Grass/Fairy, oddly enough), and Tapu Fini (Water/Fairy). They all know Nature’s Madness, have an ability that creates a specific Terrain, and share a Z Move called Guardian of Alola which basically teleports the Yellow Devil over from Mega Man’s world so that the Guardian in totem-head form can sit atop it and smash its foes. Brutal.
    -Clarification on Alolan Persian, it’s Dark type and abilities are Fur Coat and Technician.
    -A new Pokemon named Cosmog is revealed. Pure Psychic, and is very mysterious due in part to its lore (extremely rare, previously known only to royalty, the Aether Foundation is studying it) and a certain thing about it seen in leaks, but I’m not going into that. I’m curious to see what happens with this one.
    -There’s a place called Battle Tree where people are trying to construct a Pokemon League. Not sure if it’s going to be finished later on or not, but for the time being we’ll still be able to battle certain powerful trainers there (and team up with them as well.) Shown are Wally (eh, okay?), Cynthia (!!!), and new redesigns of Blue and Red (he still doesn’t talk, it’s hilarious). This interests me.
     
    We’re getting so close to Sun and Moon now please be good PLEASE be good.
  8. Pahrak Model ZX
    It's available on the eShop! I thought for sure the server would be too busy, but I downloaded it in just about 20 minutes!
     
    It's pretty fun, though obviously rather short. You get to meet Hau an Kukui, and have some encounters with Team Skull. I was right, they're losers. As reported previously your main Pokemon here is Greninja with the Batte Bond ability, letting it turn into Ash-Greninja after knocking out a Pokemon. The description just says it powers up Water Shuriken, though the move info doesn't say how much, so...seems a little underwhelming. But what did I expect from a form change that's just "give it the palette of the worst Pokemon trainer ever"?
     
    You get to use Kukui's Pikachu during a Trial, though! At the end it's given a Z-Crystal for one battle, letting you try out Gigavolt Havoc, which is pretty rad. The trial itself involves using the Poke Finder to take pictures of Jangmo-o and Hakamo-o, culminating in a fight against a Hakamo-o with the new Totem Pokemon mechanic. It's Sp. Def is boosted, and it can summon a Rockruff to aid it. After clearing that and reloading the game, you get the Ride Pager and can ride Tauros around the map, and you can access several small tasks that give you items you can transfer to the main game. There are also a lot of people saying certain things will happen in a certain number of days, so we're gonna need to keep checking back to see everything.
     
    Also, I haven't seen this myself, but...Serebii reports that you can sometimes use Poke Finder to see what would appear to be an Alolan Dugtrio. And it's, uh...not really what you'd expect...something to look into if you want.
     
    OH, also! Apparently, on the 31st and 1st, certain theaters in the US are going to be showing the first Pokemon movie! I haven't been able to find a list yet, though...
     
    PS People have datamined it and found what appears to be the compete Pokedex, plus shinies. I'm not gonna link it, but...it exists. If you want to see it. (Come on, you want to see it, right?)
  9. Pahrak Model ZX

    Another Destiny

    By Pahrak Model ZX,

    Has it really been 9 months since I last posted a Bionicle story? Wow.
     
    Anyway, I just posted a new short story over in the library: An End Escaped. I don’t feel motivated enough to commit to a full story right now, but I still wanted to throw this idea out there in some form, just to feel sort of productive.
     
    Essentially, it’s a prologue to a potential 17 story that could have been. It begins by summarizing an alternate end of the 16 story, and then sets up a new character to embark on the quest to gather the fragments of the MoUP rather than cramming that into the end of JtO. This particular character (the winter wave villain, if you will) is actually a G2 iteration of a certain someone, but you’ll have to read the story to find out who!
     
    It’s really more of a proposal than anything else, and there’s probably not much chance this closely resembles what Lego was planning, but hopefully it’s some enjoyable food for thought. If nothing else, it felt good to stretch my legs in the Bionicle world again, especially for G2, since Okoto 579 kinda flopped. Now I wonder if I can get together something for G1…
  10. Pahrak Model ZX
    -Type: Null evolves into a Pokemon named Silvally. There really isn’t much change, all it really does is destroy its power-limiter helmet (here I thought that was just gonna be a form change), but in doing so it gains a new ability: RKS System. RKS. Say that out loud. Wanna know what it does? When given certain items, Silvally changes type, as does its new signature move. RKS. Too cool for subtlety it seems.
    -Remember that dragon Jangmo-o? It has two evolutions, both of whom are our first Dragon/Fighting types! Really considering one of these for my team. It’s been suggested this might be the new pseudo-legendary, and I’m willing to believe that. The look is a little weird, but I still think it looks pretty darn cool.
    -Bounsweet evolves twice, both are pure Grass types.
    -Cutiefly evolves into a Pokemon named Ribombee. It’s basically Cutiefly with a scarf, and it’s pretty adorable.
    -Alolan Grimer and Muk are Dark/Poison. I’m not crazy about them, but they’re more creative than their Gen I selves.
    -Two new characters are also introduced: Olivia, Kahuna of Akala Island (Rock specialist), and Trial Captain Ilima (Normal specialist), who will apparently be the very first Trial Captain you face.
     
    Don’t forget that the demo is coming out on the 18th!
  11. Pahrak Model ZX

    721

    By Pahrak Model ZX,

    The Volcanion event begins today! I officially have a complete Living Dex!
     
    I mean I know it won't be that way for long with Sun and Moon around the corner, and this really isn't a big thing in the larger scheme of things, but I've never been able to say that before and it's kind of a cool feeling. A complete Living Dex! For the longest time I thought that would be impossible for me, but the Gen VI games make it much easier and the 20th anniversary events filled in the Mythicals, it just all came together so well!
     
    And I am still really jazzed about Sun and Moon. Nearly everything they've shown looks great, they've got so much promise, and it will be fun to search for new Pokemon to catch again. It's a little eh to think I might not have the Moon exclusives for a while, but that's way at the back of my mind. I'm thrilled to have a Living Dex! I'm thrilled we're getting new games! I'm just...really excited right now!
  12. Pahrak Model ZX
    -Later this month we’ll be getting a demo similar to what happened with ORAS, which will give us access to a Greninja with the ability to transform into Ash-Greninja from the anime. Which is great! Except it’s still called Ash-Greninja instead of getting a better name. Oh well.
    -The main draw here is the mid-stage evolutions of the starters! Check ‘em out!
    -Mega Evolution is confirmed to be back! Thank God! Why did they wait so long to mention it? No word on if there are going to be any new ones yet.
    -There’s an area called Festival Plaza that connects to other players and provides several useful facilities.
    -A new system lets you assign your boxed Pokemon to various islands to level up, lure wild Pokemon, and find items. Which is awesome! Now even the Pokemon you’d never even think of using can be super useful!
  13. Pahrak Model ZX
    95% Guilt!
     

     
    (No, seriously, first try!)
     
    I've never seen Guilt this high, let alone on a Medal this good. At this point it's more sensible to wait for Magic Mirrors than fuse another one! Thank God I might actually be able to get some Adamant Ore now.
     
    EDIT: My gosh I just noticed
     

     
    Jack what are you doing. Why the sneak.
  14. Pahrak Model ZX

    Ideal Worlds

    By Pahrak Model ZX,

    We already have confirmation of Hercules, Big Hero 6, and Tangled worlds for Kingdom Hearts III, hopefully they’re going to reveal more soon, here are some I want.
     
    -Atlantis was one of my favorite movies as a kid. Rewatching it recently I wasn’t as impressed, but still, it’d be nice to see, and it even has the Heart of Atlantis as a thing so it would work almost too well.
    -Everybody complains about Agrabah but I want it back. Ideally with a good adaptation of King of Thieves, which I need to rewatch.
    -Honestly I want Space Paranoids back. They went through all the trouble of integrating it into the plot, and Radiant Garden is probably going to be back, so I hope they go pay Tron another visit, it’s only fair.
    -It’s been forever since I’ve seen the Jungle Book, but since they’ve been trying and failing again and again to put it in I hope they finally get it onboard. End the struggle.
    -Something Pixar. Or everything Pixar. Pixar.
    -A new Lilo and Stitch world that covers more than just the opening of the movie.
    -I’d like the 100 Acre Woods back too actually, it’s a charming little diversion world that brings a lot of positivity with it.
    -I’d like Destiny Islands back as a playable world, which it hasn’t been outside of KH1 and rehashes of it.
    -A Muppets world, with a line similar to “This boss fight is brought to you by the letter X and the number 13!”
    -It’s be cool to see the Pride Lands come back.
    -Not exactly a world, but I’d like a post-game area like the Cavern of Remembrance in KHIIFM. It’s always fascinated me and we haven’t had anything like it since. Or bring back the CoR itself, with story relevance, that’d be super rad!
     
    …Wait, this trend is talking about Kingdom Hearts worlds, right?
  15. Pahrak Model ZX

    Throwback Thursday

    By Pahrak Model ZX,

    We had some down time at work right before I was about to leave so we were just talking. Random stuff, no real direction, and somehow the conversation ended up on dinosaurs, which ones we thought were kinda cool and that sort of thing. And someone mentioned a liopleurodon.
     
    And I was like, “Huh. You know, I’ve only heard that name in one context before. That’s a memory I’m not really sure I want to relive.”
     
    The conversation continued in that vein until I left, neither of us directly referring to the thing we both agreed we didn’t need to remember, but we both knew.
     
    We both knew.
     
    Not to mention that right before that, another coworker had said “pew pew” in response to my saying “laser-focused”. (She was the one who offered “throwback Thursday” as an explanation.) So it is possible I’m entering into some time distortion where decade-old memes come back to haunt me. That could be dangerous…but then again, I know that Rick Astley would be on my side in that fight. He would never let me down.
     
    Side note, typing that title makes me think Throwbot Thursday should be a thing. Maybe.
  16. Pahrak Model ZX
    was released at TGS, as well as the game’s boxart and the announcement that it was being moved from December to January (but January in both Japan AND the US!). 
    Getting some nitpicks out of the way, I’m…not really a fan of the new Hikari remix. LOVE the name (Hikari - Ray of Hope Mix - ), but as soon as I heard it it just seemed kind of off. I dunno, maybe it’s just me. Also it appears there’s going to be DLC for the game (I mean I don’t have a PS4 so I probably will just watch someone play it but still…ugh), and my instant reaction to that isn’t positive for whatever reason. Lastly, one of the news sites I frequent points out that the Drop Gauge doesn’t appear in the footage of Dream Drop Distance, and says the Gauge was “frustrating” and if it has been removed that will make fans happy. Come on, people. It wasn’t that bad if you just managed it right. It was a lot smoother alternating between Sora and Riku than BBS’s method of playing through one whole story, then starting over with the second, and then starting over again with the third. (I love BBS but the Drop Gauge was definitely an improvement.) Kingdom Hearts fans really are unpleasable.
     
    Anyway, those are my complaints. Moving on.
     
    -Master Aqua is beautiful. I mean, everyone already knows this, but…Master Aqua is beautiful.
    -I love the way the snippet of 0.2’s opening goes, showing Terra and Ven in their possessed states. I don’t know why.
    -There really isn’t much to say about the Dream Drop Distance segment other than the apparent lack of Drop Gauge.
    -Following up on Aqua seeing an illusion of Terra in the remains of Castle of Dreams, we now see her finding an illusion of Ven in the remains of Dwarf Woodlands. She also finds the Magic Mirror, which produces a doppelganger for her to fight. I’m a sucker for doppelgangers.
    -We see a few short clips of the Foretellers. Aced wants to form an alliance, Gula’s being edgy and saying he can only trust himself, and there’s an interesting bit where Ava tells Invi that what she’s doing might be making things worse. Which is the first time we’ve seen any hint of Invi being interesting at all.
    -Back to 0.2, there appear to be some new Heartless, though I haven’t gotten a clear look at them. There also looks to be an interesting segment of exploring a castle and the world suddenly becomes inverted. Probably related to the ol’ Magic Mirror.
    -It keeps jumping back and forth, anyway, we also get to see Luxu and the Master of Masters in the same room for the first time. So, there goes one of the possibilities I was considering. But it still looks interesting.
    -Once again to 0.2, Mickey makes his appearance! This leads into a very…peculiar scene that I’m sure is going to be important somehow. We see a swarm of Darksides all throwing orbs of energy into the air (in a method reminiscent of whatever Master Xehanort does to summon Kingdom Hearts in BBS), all joining together into one massive sphere just like the one that appeared over Destiny Islands as it was destroyed back in the first game. It’s a striking image.
     
    Again, there’s little to no chance I’m going to be able to buy this and play it for myself, but I’m still really looking forward to watching Back Cover and 0.2. It’ll be wonderful to finally get full context on what’s going on in Unchained X, and seeing Master Aqua again is a lovely dream…I mean, aside from the fact that she’s…still in the Realm of Darkness…but, it’s a step. Plus we know the frame tale is going to show Master Riku and Kairi at Yen Sid’s tower and I really want to know what direction that’s going to point us in. (Kairi with a Keyblade with any luck.) Ah, maybe 2017 won’t be horrible!
     
    No, it probably will. But at least I’ll have Kingdom Hearts.
  17. Pahrak Model ZX
    Kingdom Hearts Unchained X continues. One of the recent additions was a school uniform (on a Raid Board), not exactly a costume I was looking forward to but there was a Cid on the other side so, eh, I’ll pick it up.
     

     
    …I actually kind of like the way it looks.
     
    But on a less tsundere note, I’ve actually leveled up quite a bit recently, because this month’s Weekend Raid Boss If There Isn’t Another Event Raid Boss is
     

     
    THE GUMMI HOUND
     
    I saw this on the Wiki a while back and just think it looks so cool. It’s a giant dog mecha piloted by numerous Heartless, with cannons that shoot other Heartless and, as I just discovered, ROCKET POWERED FISTS. Also it’s purple. Like, what’s not to love? Not only is fighting it easier than that 30 million HP Fortress Crab (the Hound starts at only 3 million), it also gives out way more Lux, not to mention I finally figured out when Bonus Hours are in my timezone and they just added the once a day Lux Up button. There won’t be one this weekend since the Trident Tail with the school uniform Raid Board is still going on, but man, I’m looking forward to fighting more of these.
     
    Also I’m so close to being able to equip a full set of 6 Star Medals, maybe then I can start getting more Adamantite and power up my relatively weak Keyblades. Divine Rose is awesome though, like it’s only at +18 and it already has a much higher strength than any other Keyblade I have. And it looks lovely.
  18. Pahrak Model ZX
    I’ve been thinking about some games I like that are sort of underappreciated so I don’t know I’m just gonna spit ‘em out. It’s late and I’m tired, here’s a closer look at how Pahrak thinks.
     
    -Mega Man Star Force: Seriously this is probably the least-liked of the Mega Man series…es. Unless you count Xover, but chances are a lot of people don’t even know that was a thing, so I’m not gonna count it. And sure, it has its flaws, and I know fans of the main timeline’s gameplay don’t appreciate the RPG style of this and Battle Network (I’m actually the reverse), but there’s something it has that the Mega Man series as a whole is not known for: character development! (…Granted, mostly the first game, but STILL.) You don’t just go around crushing random berserk robots or stopping a series of increasingly quirky cyber-terrorists, each boss you fight is an actual person going through an honest-to-God crisis when a freaking alien materializes in front of them and says “HEY I’LL HELP YOU SUCKER!”, and then Mega Man actually cares about what they’re going through and tries to actually help them through it in addition to kicking their butt. (It’s a game, butts have to be kicked.) And Mega Man has problems too, that he slowly works through over the course of the game/series! Geo is my Mega Man because I can actually relate to him, even if Hub was my first and Ven/Aile are the only main timeline heroes whose game I’ve actually beaten. Geo Stelar is like Shinji Ikari done right. Which is the perfect mix of what I’m actually like and what I’d kinda sorta like to be like. Please love him.
     
    -The World Ends With You: Oh man where do I start. Yeah, the only reason I bought it at first was because “oh hey a new Square game could be fun”, and then it ended up being one of the most fun games I’ve ever played. Grinding feels like a privilege. And I never even fully mastered the crazy combat system, I had a freaking blast being mediocre at it. On Ultimate difficulty. It’s just so much fun to play. And then you get a story with genuinely interesting twists in a world with neat mechanics (the more complicated ones you don’t even need to know about until you get to the post-game reports) affecting characters who feel like actual modern teenagers in a way that isn’t totally obnoxious. Okay, one of them is totally obnoxious. Maybe two. But Neku is great. And you know JRPGs are generally all “friendship and collectivism”, and there’s some of that there, but they actually make a point of showing collectivism going too far, and instead of demonizing introversion and individualism, make a darn convincing argument that it is vital to strike a healthy balance between the two extremes. How novel! And they make it so easy to replay it, which is the real danger here, because if you like this game you’ll probably end up playing through it at least seven times, which I’ve done, and I really don’t replay many games. For me the world ended when I realized I could play this game instead of interacting with it. That’s not entirely true but I thought it sounded funny. Anyway TWEWY is dramatic yet touching and you should love it, but no rush they’re probably never actually going to make that sequel they teased.
     
    -Final Fantasy V: Because it’s always about VII. Cloud has blocked the sun from falling on everything that came before him, except occasionally IV and VI. V is always in that dark spot, partly because the original SNES version was never brought stateside, and I guess the PS version had a bad translation? (So I’ve been told.) BUT DID YOU KNOW! Prior to the release of IX, V was Sakaguchi’s favorite Final Fantasy?! (Sakaguchi is the guy who made Final Fantasy BTW.) And now we have the GBA and mobile phone versions which have a much better translation and new stuff, and the sprites are pretty weird in the phone version but you can deal with that, so there’s no reason to ignore it any longer! FFV takes the Job System from I and III and enhances it before it disappears for a few installments, probably because it took them a while to feel like they could do it better. And this game, let me tell you, it has that balance of humor and drama that I love. A huge amount of it is self-parody, just messing around with standard Final Fantasy stuff and not taking itself too seriously. And then suddenly something super dark happens. And sometimes, there’s something serious happening, and someone says something that’s just genuinely hilarious. And then a few minutes later you’re crying. Like, you’ve got Gilgamesh taking about “NOW WE FIGHT LIKE MEN! AND LADIES! AND LADIES WHO DRESS LIKE MEN! FOR GILGAMESH, IT IS MORPHING TIME!” And then like, Exdeath just chucks your hometown full of innocent villagers straight into the Void for no practical reason. Exdeath is the most terrifying tree ever. Gilgamesh is the best recurring boss, which is why he recurs in so many Final Fantasies now, and those are just the villains. The heroes are great. Bartz is pretty normal I’ll admit, but he’s still pretty darn cool. Then you’ve got Captain Faris Scherwiz, who gets thrown off a cliff and just freaking climbs back up two dialogue boxes later. (She’s probably the coolest girl in this franchise, and was written in 92. A cool girl in a JRPG in 92. You didn’t think it was possible did you?) And freaking Galuf, who basically breaks the game mechanics through sheer force of will and I’m crying again. It’s goofy and dark and filled with lovable dorks and you get to master the piano to the point where mere mortals quake in fear of your superhuman keyboard manipulation skills. Please punch Cloud and play this game.
     
    -Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum: I mean, as far as Pokemon regions go. This seems to be about the cutoff for nostalgia blinders. But see, Young Pahrak (Pahrak Va) wasn’t allowed to watch/play Pokemon at first, not until around the end of Gen II/beginning of Gen III. At which point I binged, fell in love with Gold, but then got annoyed that I couldn’t trade my Pokemon up to Ruby and Sapphire. So my newly-permitted interest in Pokemon just completely dropped off, until I was in a store and saw Diamond, realized I had enough money in my pocket, and took it home with me. That game is the reason I’m playing Pokemon today. Sinnoh is a beautiful region filled with great Pokemon (I know, not enough Fire types, WE ALL MAKE MISTAKES), the Gym Leaders started to develop actual personalities and do things, and it had the first and still best female Champion (you were on your last Pokemon Cynthia, why did you do that to me, I still love you but why). And the mythology. Sure it led to Legendary inflation, which I’ll admit is obnoxious, but the mythic feel of Sinnoh just gives it a meaningful and fantastic (as in fantasy-like, though it is fantastic good as well) atmosphere I haven’t found elsewhere in the Pokemon world. Sinnoh is wonderful please love it like you love Kanto/Johto/Hoenn.
     
    That’s all I can think of right now I should probably sleep.
  19. Pahrak Model ZX

    Pokemon News

    By Pahrak Model ZX,

    (Thinking up new and fresh titles is hard okay)
     

    ! Or not, here’s a round-up: 
    -They start off by introducing a strange new Pokemon named “Type: Null”. Yes, that is apparently its name. It looks pretty darn weird too. I’m…not entirely sure what to make of this, but the Pokedex info revealed makes it sound like it’s important to lore, being constructed to fight Legendary Pokemon or something like that. I’m guessing it’ll have a form change since that helmet is a power limiter. It’s supposed to combine the abilities of numerous Pokemon, so…chimera confirmed? There is speculation of alchemy-inspired themes in the game.
    -Then they reveal Jangmo-o, a cute little Dragon Pokemon. I like how it looks, if it evolves into something cool I might try to make room for it on my team.
    -There’s also Alolan Raticate. Nothing much to say here.
    -Apparently, Sun and Moon are “set 12 hours apart”. It’s a little vague, but I’m guessing this means that Moon will actually invert the standard day/night cycle, so times that have been “day” during every game up until now will actually be “night”. This could make it easier to get certain time-based evolutions!
    -Next is a new organization called the Aether Foundation. They appear to be responsible for the man-made island seen on the Alola map, which is a Pokemon sanctuary. It’s a little too soon to get a read on them, but this could be an interesting development.
    -Team Skull has an “enforcer” named Gladion. I can’t wait to beat him up.
    -Apparently Dexio and Sina, the glorified cameos who did absolutely nothing in X and Y, appear to give you a cube that you use to collect Zygarde Cells and Cores as you explore the region. Free Perfect Zygarde?!
    -There’s a photo-taking feature in the game, and it seems very similar to the beloved Pokemon Snap (which I should probably play).
    -At the end, a new concept known as “Ultra Beasts” is teased. It’s super vague, all it does is show one such Pokemon, named “UB-01”, and its Pokedex information says it’s made of a glass-like substance, constantly shapeshifts, it’s not clear if it has an actual intelligence, but apparently “its movements resemble those of a young girl”? I really don’t know what to think. Eager to learn more, though.
    -I’ve heard that the Japanese equivalent of this trailer also shows a brief shot of a new Pokemon, a Pokemon that rather resembles Cutiefly, but no relation has been confirmed as of yet.
  20. Pahrak Model ZX

    The Victory Star

    By Pahrak Model ZX,

    Do you remember? It’s September. (The joke works great because this Pokemon is an Earth Wind & Fire type.)
     
    To ensure your success this month, you should access Mystery Gift to get a Victini! It’s a great Pokémon, I used one on my team back in Pokémon White. Because I use Legendaries on my teams and I refuse to let anyone make me feel bad about that.
     
    We’re really winding down on these Mythical distributions. Since the Gen V events were all much easier to access, I’m wondering if people will really need these new ones as much? Well, it’s still neat.
     
    721 HERE WE COME!
  21. Pahrak Model ZX
    You know, I think it’s time I changed my display name.
     
    (This has absolutely nothing to do with the final story update of KHX and the Ursus Foreteller being unbelievably brutal. Nope. Not that at all.)
     
    I’m not sure what to go with, though. There are the old ones I’ve been sitting on for a while:
    -Stained Glass Pahrak
    -Pahrak III.7 HD ReNAME
    -Sinnoh Slizer
    -Professor O’Pahrak
     
    Though, if I wanted to go with something matching my current avatar, maybe:
    -Pearl Pahrak
    -Pearlrak
    -Bird Mom Pahrak
     
    Hm, it’s a tough one.
  22. Pahrak Model ZX
    I don’t really have anything in particular to say about it. The best thing was a certain character being promoted to Captain in the second-to-last chapter, that actually made me happy. Everything else is just kinda…meh.
     
    In all fairness it seems like Jump cancelled the series, so…maybe it wouldn’t have been quite as bad otherwise…haha, yeah, it probably would’ve.
     
    Well anyways that’s one chunk of my life over, time to watch better anime.
  23. Pahrak Model ZX

    It's Seasonal

    By Pahrak Model ZX,

    Unchained gave out straw hats in this week's ranking. Thankfully there was a Raid event so it was easy to earn a bunch of Lux! I've been trying different outfits lately anyway, so I changed things around and this is what I'm looking like at the moment.
     

     
    I'm totally not going to use this to make a One Piece reference. Nope. Just a...straw hat. No need to mention rubber pirates.
     
    Wow, this is probably the first (or maybe second?) time I've not worn a jetpack since being able to wear a jetpack.
  24. Pahrak Model ZX

    Alovely Alola

    By Pahrak Model ZX,

    There’s been a decent batch of new reveals for Pokemon Sun and Moon over the past few days! Let me see if I can round it all up.
     
    Before we get to that though, we have a window for Volcanion’s US distribution! We’ll be hitting 721 in October, and it’ll be a GameStop event. So I’ll have a complete Dex for about a month! Cool!
     
    Anyway,there have been several new Pokemon revealed:
    -A family of two Ghost/Ground Pokemon, one a mound of sand and the evolution being a sand castle, English names not currently available. Seems a little silly…though it does include an image of the sand castle Pokemon freaking devouring a Pikachu, so there’s that.
    -Bewear has a pre-evolution, but I don’t really be-care-ing.
    -A new fish named Wishiwashi, with an interesting ability. Apparently, when it reaches a certain level, it transforms from one fish into a school of fish shaped like one massive fish, but will revert when enough damage is taken. It sounds sort of like evolution done in a new way, which sounds really interesting!
    -There’s also Pewkumuku Pyukumuku, a…thing…that extends its insides out of its mouth…to use as a fist…? And its ability deals damage upon being knocked out. This is weird, right?
    -There’s also the Grass/Fairy Pokemon Morelull, but it doesn’t really do anything to stand out. It’s just kinda there.
     
    Plus, a few new Alola Forms!
    -Alolan Meowth is Dark type and can have Technician or Pickup, just like regular Meowth. Seeing as it’s basically Team Rocket’s mascot, Dark makes sense, though it does seem just a tad redundant with Purrloin. It’s even purple.
    -There had been a hint that Alolan Marowak would be Fire type. It is now revealed to be Fire/Ghost (HAHA). It has darker skin and its body and limbs are a little thinner (the only thing about this design I’m unsure about), and its bone has two green-blue flames on the ends, making it look like a fire dancer. It looks super-rad and I kinda want one.
    -And then there’s Alolan Raichu! It’s Electric/Psychic and uses its tail as a surfboard…so I’m not sure why it isn’t part Water, but still pretty cool. It has a new ability called Surge Surfer that doubles its speed when Electric Terrain is active.
     
    Lastly, we’re starting to see the villainous team: Team Skull! They are dark and edgy. There is a scene where the boss talks to Kukui and says something about them failing to become Trial Captains, though, and that sounds like something that could be worth looking forward to. And on a smaller note, it appears that some of them use different types of Poke Balls, meaning there might be some variety in the balls we see NPCs using. If that interests you.
     
    Alolan Marowak is the stand-out for me, though Alolan Raichu is also rad. Can’t wait to see more!
  25. Pahrak Model ZX
    It’s decided: Slizer Dome US will be posted in G&T on Wednesday, August 10th!
     
    Come by next week and you can throw yourself into the Throwbot Slizer world! Choose any of the eight planets to live on, work to enhance your abilities, and battle fierce Elemental Monsters to prove that you are worthy of being named the Champion of the Galaxy! Signups will remain open for only 48 hours after posting, so don’t miss it!
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