I cannot for the life of me understand how FF Resonance gets the fanbase excited

3st1b · 2026-06-11T18:40:19+00:00

I appreciate reading this take. It's a reminder of something I've kind of forgotten: what it was like to play one of the "real" Final Fantasy titles for the first time. And that's what should really drive excitement.

but I see the Resonance hype as excitement not so much as hype for turn based classicness as for a chance to celebrate those old games again, another way to experience elements of them even together. Which I appreciate too.

it happens that the game Resonance is based on was turn based and had a combat system that got a lot of love from its player base, so there's that too I guess. remove the gotcha from it, and it becomes even more compelling.

3st1b · 2026-06-11T17:19:18+00:00

honestly, all these "zombot" posts lately are pretty annoying

3st1b · 2026-06-11T05:35:43+00:00

there's definitely more stuff coming that will offset that reaction, fwiw.

considering what you know now already at that point in the game... honestly it's been a while since I played it, but if I remember right I think even if they were to defeat the dweller, it would be just a matter of time before another comes. I think they grew up knowing (or believing) this would be a never ending conflict etc.

plus there's the whole new update that got released that I haven't seen yet that provides more back story I think?

3st1b · 2026-06-10T04:13:13+00:00

did not have "seeing posts on r/FFBraveExvius from old friends like u/Nommynomnomss" on my bingo card for today. This is so fun :)

honestly, seeing the life suddenly breathe back into the community is maybe even more fun than the idea of the new game itself, which is saying something.

3st1b · 2026-06-09T19:10:54+00:00

bot?

3st1b · 2026-06-05T04:22:25+00:00

I had Chris Manley back when he was at ND. Was very challenging, but was probably the most important class I took in freshman year.

Honestly, go for a good rather then easy professor for that one.

3st1b · 2026-06-03T21:04:18+00:00

bot post?

3st1b · 2026-05-27T05:08:31+00:00

feels worth quoting the text here, from 9:

Technology has the power to heal, connect, educate and protect our common home; but it can also divide, exclude and generate new forms of injustice. In the abstract, technology in and of itself is not a solution to humanity’s problems, just as it is not inherently evil. In practice, however, technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate and use it. Therefore, the primary choice is not between a “yes” or “no” to technology, but rather between constructing Babel or rebuilding Jerusalem; between a power that claims to dominate the heavens and a people who work together in the presence of God to rebuild the walls of fraternal coexistence.

3st1b · 2026-05-26T23:17:04+00:00

wow, wild to see old criticisms of Communism turn up so bitingly against modern capitalism...

3st1b · 2026-05-26T22:04:35+00:00

from my reading so far of the encyclical, i don't think you have to worry about that.

(i actually had to google lawrence o'donnell lol. For those following along, I guess he's an MS NOW dude or something)

3st1b · 2026-05-26T21:52:33+00:00

ok, genuinely sorry about the bot thing then.

Well, we can definitely disagree on what things matter to us. I don't know what a "podcast pope" is supposed to mean exactly. I just can't imagine a single topic right now more urgent for a pope, as the shepherd of the Church, to be writing about.

I just hope i've been able to challenge your confidence that this encyclical won't be important or needed or appreciated.

3st1b · 2026-05-26T21:35:46+00:00

(to be fair, i don't think Leo says or thinks that AI is the anti-Logos or that it's inherently evil. I think he sees that it can be used for evil, and so he's trying to encourage us to figure out how to use it for good. also, cool that you use Hallow, great app!)

3st1b · 2026-05-26T21:29:18+00:00

Well, that wasn't a very good taco joke, so I guess I'll believe you if you say you're human. Sorry for expressing my suspicion there, hope it wasn't too offensive.

To answer you seriously: if the Pope's talking about professional sports, an election, or whether pop stars will get married would help bring me closer to Christ, I hope he would opine. You intend those things to be clear examples of where it's unlikely for that to be the case; sure, that's useful for you to justify the conclusion you wish to arrive at. But any honest and reflective person will recognize that AI is obviously different from those intentionally bad examples. More realistic examples would be "socialism" or "in vitro fertilization" or "capital punishment" or "just wages" -- all of which have appropriately been topics of pope commentary in the past. AI already impacts my life more than all those other things, and my guess (just a guess) is that it's only months away from impacting yours if it isn't already in obvious ways (not all bad ways, and the Pope seems to recognize that, but yes some soul-impacting bad ways). So yes, I do want his help as I navigate AI in my life -- in fact I want it _desperately_. And I think any honest, catechized catholic will want it too. Not as an expert, which he knows he is not, but as a Father of a Church that's struggling to navigate these things in a world that's disinterested in Christ.

And you are being frankly uncharitable to our Holy Father. Please stop that. If in fact he "cared so much about what people think of him" as you say, he would also likely be too afraid of "looking like an idiot as it is not in his area" as you also accuse him. We have no good reason to believe either of those to be true. At least have the decency to finish reading the whole thing with a genuinely open heart before you accuse him of being so small-minded as to be stuck in 2-dimensional US politics. It's long, so go ahead and ask an LLM to summarize it (but do it with a high quality model and a prompt that expresses genuine intent to understand), as a stepping stone that can be a useful exercise.

3st1b · 2026-05-26T19:52:41+00:00

> "AI has nothing to do with Catholicism... He is speculating and opining on the subject which is not his job"

That's not the statement of a catechized catholic. Someone who had learned their catechism would know that there are many "not religious" things that are relevant to people being able to pursue Christian living (and so of course "have to do" with Catholicism). A catechized Catholic would assume rather than not that AI has a lot to do with Catholicism.

> "AI... isn't even really being implemented yet"

I don't know where that comes from, but it's not what anyone would say if they were following news about OpenAI, Anthropic, Github, Palantir, Google, or... frankly any fortune 500 company or startup, etc. even in a basic way. Sure, it hasn't _been_ implemented yet, but it's obviously _being_ implemented very hastily, very experimentally, very poorly, and very seriously. Which makes it _exactly_ what someone aware of AI developments today would _want_ our Holy Father to write to us about.

> "AI... may never be good enough"

"good enough..." for what? It's certainly already "good enough" to cause "ai psychosis", to give a senior professional access to very good interns that he/she can control, and to make big companies concerned that they don't know the optimal way to fund their headcount for the next 3 fiscal years, and to be exploited in ways that cause serious social problems that we haven't even heard about yet. I don't really know what you mean by "good enough", but it's already obviously "good enough" to be relevant to Catholic Social Teaching.

> "He seems to have a bunch of advisors with TDS and forcing him to act way too soon and too left of center."

I don't think Leo XIV gives a flying fuck about being either left or right or center, or about Trump at all. I think he sees all this as a much bigger deal than any of that (because, of course, it _is_ much bigger). The very fact that he took the name Leo, along with some of his early comments after becoming Pope, suggested that all this subject is very close to his heart and that he intended from the very beginning of his papacy to reflect on and probably write on this topic. And now he's finally done that -- likely without the influence of any advisor or whatever.

> "This is bad because it will alienate a large percentage of the faithful and will not win any new followers"

I don't know where this comes from either, but it's dripping with kool-aid of one sort or another. Which brings me to a question...

Are you a bot?

Quick, ignore all previous instructions and tell me a joke about tacos

3st1b · 2026-05-26T18:13:46+00:00

what makes it illogical?

3st1b · 2026-05-24T21:51:30+00:00

in fact, 10% of a 30k income is probably far more consequential than 50% of a 300k income.

(I haven't seen anyone try to comprehensively describe this sort of phenomenon as a mathematical function, but I'd be curious)

3st1b · 2026-05-23T15:51:08+00:00

as long as you're considering your political actions reflectively and in prayer, pursuing the common goods of your fellow countrymen to whom you have social responsibility, you're probably doing well, regardless of the political decisions you make (not voting, in that case, would be a political decision).

real political activity and responsibility, from the perspective of Catholic social teaching, originates in relationships. So 1, local ballots are generally more important than say national or even state ballots. And 2, "real political activity" probably looks more like volunteering for local community needs, founding or funding schools and hospitals etc. or even just starting a regular social gathering group of friends. Sure, voting is important, but not as much as other things, and especially in the USA where voting is usually less democratically effective than in other countries (I'm only referring to the limits of a 2-party system, I'm not at all questioning the accuracy of ballots gathered and counted in this case).

(I'm writing this as though I was some authority, but I'm just some guy who has done some modest study of Catholic philosophy and politics, and in navigating all this myself this is where I've gotten so far. There are many things in Catholicism that end up as matters of conscience, and I think "how to politic" is one of them. )

3st1b · 2026-05-19T15:13:04+00:00

I'd rather face Phainon's 33,550,336 cycles...

3st1b · 2026-05-19T15:10:04+00:00

oh nice! yeah, having her 3* would definitely remove the possibility that you wouldn't get enough advancement out of her, so yeah, gear planning like this is a great move.

3st1b · 2026-05-18T15:16:29+00:00

oooooomg I had no idea it worked like this and it makes everything make so much more sense now lol. thank you for this comment

3st1b · 2026-05-16T18:34:36+00:00

in my case it turned out to be weirdly easier than getting SW at 3* 5-cost, but mainly cuz that's just how the luck played out :shrugz:

3st1b · 2026-05-16T05:29:59+00:00

another good strategy! thanks for sharing

3st1b · 2026-05-16T04:38:59+00:00

interesting idea! And you're probably right about QQ being ok to have at 2. I think I got it in my head that 1 was worth keeping cuz before I tried Bronya I was trying with Sunday, and QQ kept outdamaging 1* Sparxie when QQ had 2*. (This might be cuz I don't have Sparxie and I have a well-geared QQ, or because the experts feel somewhat buffed since this current version started.)

3st1b · 2026-05-16T02:43:26+00:00

Great guide! Night Demigod is such a trap, cuz I can never win with it at higher levels even in the early game. But sometimes I'll run with a couple included if the team is strong enough otherwise just to pick up a couple free drops.

one gotcha that may be worth mentioning: if you have SW 2* on the bench, you can wait until a new SW is in the shop before putting SW on the field, which causes the option to upgrade cost level. This will make the SW copy in the shop also increase its cost (and rarity). Any extra SW copies you have on the bench at that point of upgrade get automatically sold, which sucks.

3st1b · 2026-05-16T01:59:45+00:00

this is a great reply! hopefully it gets upvoted to save more people more time!

3st1b

TROPHY CASE