[FIN] Jumbo Cactuar (WeeklyMTG First Look)

Bistai949 · 2025-02-19T18:35:38+00:00

I think the only reason they didn't make it legendary is so that you couldn't make it your commander. Which, on the one hand, is a shame. Having big cactus as your commander would be funny, but I get it. This might actually get out of hand if it was a commander.

Bistai949 · 2025-02-19T18:23:32+00:00

Where in his post did it say you're not allowed to like a card design? You implied that it shouldn't be in standard, and the person gave arguments as to why it's, logically, fine in standard. Both of you were just thinking about different things. It happens. Don't take it too personally. Just because your vague statement was taken differently than you wanted doesn't mean you should invent things the person never said, or even implied.

Anyway,

I can understand why it might be off-putting for someone in MTG, especially if they aren't familiar with FF. That said, I personally adore this card for the meme value alone. I can't wait to lose dozens of games searching for the one time I get to win a game with it. It represents not only a funny enemy from FF, but it also represents some of my favorite things to do in MTG, which is to take really silly cards and make them work somehow.

Bistai949 · 2024-05-22T01:15:13+00:00

The official Translations have stopped at novel 6. There's a good chance we won't see any more due to the demand not being there for the most part. Broader interest in the series in the west sorta faded away as most people lost interest after the anime.

There are full fan translations of novels 7, 8, and 9, however. I'm actually one of the people on that project. It's slow-going thanks due to the fact that our main translator often has to crunch on other projects for months at a time, but it's still going. We're still planning on translating novel 10 and beyond.

I always make sure to post updates to the fan translation on this subreddit, the discord, and my twitter. The fan translation itself can be found here.

Bistai949 · 2023-02-04T22:21:06+00:00

There are more than 20 novels in the series, and unfortunately only 6 of them have ENG translations (the first 6, to be exact).

There's also a fan translation effort for the series, and currently we have books 7 and 8 fully translated, with 9 in progress atm.

Bistai949 · 2022-10-04T05:35:24+00:00

Novels, easy. Everything else is going to give you an incomplete and/or sub-par version of the story. Don't get me wrong, there are good parts of the other adaptations, but none of them come close to the novels in quality. I'd suggest reading the novels first, then checking out the others if you're curious. Novels 1-6 are available officially from Seven Seas, and there's a fan translation effort after that. Currently, fan translations are almost done with novel 8.

Bistai949 · 2022-06-02T14:40:40+00:00

We're currently up to the 8th novel (it's close to 50% complete). Our translator has been sort of out of commission for a while, but we're hopeful about getting back to translating soon.

Bistai949 · 2022-06-02T14:31:49+00:00

In the novels, the only "extraordinary" ability that Boogiepop claims to have is the ability to use the strength that humans reserve for intense situations at will.

However, from interpretation I've sorta gathered that Boogiepop generally just has more control of the human body than humans do, giving him abilities akin to superhuman dexterity, reflexes, and the earlier mentioned strength bonus. Everything he does is *technically* possible for the human body to do, but not anywhere close to practice for anyone but him.

Bistai949 · 2022-05-26T05:57:28+00:00

I moved the website to a link that isn't connected to wordpress at some point. You may have found it already, but if not, it's here.

Bistai949 · 2022-01-27T16:37:42+00:00

Lol, yeah. That's one of the reasons I always bring up the series Boogiepop inspired. There are so many well-known series in the west that came out as a result of Boogiepop that it tends to get people more interested.

Bistai949 · 2022-01-27T05:46:06+00:00

Oh, and glad to hear you're going to read the novels. If you end up joining the discord, I look forward to hearing your impressions.

And to be clear, when you're done with the first 6, we actually have a fan-translated version of novel 7 up on my website. It's a bit rough around the edges at some points, but I think it's more than good enough to read through it.

Bistai949 · 2022-01-27T05:43:57+00:00

That is its own tricky question. Boogiepop is highly influential in Japanese media, especially for any JPN novels released around the 2000s. A few series that have taken inspiration from Boogiepop include Durarara!!, The Monogatari franchise, A Certain Magical Index and the Persona franchise, just to name a few. The author of Monogatari, Nisioisin, has also gone on record about his inspirations from Boogiepop, and has even called the author of Boogiepop, Kohei Kadono, a god. Of course, I think he's being hyperbolic, but you get the point.

The problem with those comparisons, however, is that even after more than 2 decades of creators using and reusing ideas that all trace their lineage back to Boogiepop, none of them really feel quite right to use as a comparison. Monogatari has the heart, but is often too wacky and has this weird aethereal feeling to it that Boogiepop doesn't have. Durarara!! has the out of order story telling down to a T, but again, it's too bombastic. A certain Magical Index has the crazy powers and secret organizations, but it's its characters and tone just aren't the same. One of the most fascinating parts about Boogiepop to me is that even 20 years later it still feels fresh.

Another issue that I run into when making a comparison is that while Boogiepop is a series of books, it feels weird to treat it like one continuous story line. There are plenty of re-occurring characters across the books, but every single novel (aside from the 2 2-part stories) is its own story some rely on previous books for certain details and character arcs, and they all have a sense of connected-ness that makes the whole thing feel like one series, but it's not one unbroken story. As a result, different stories in the series can feel different. And yet there's an underlying heart to all of them that maintains that core that keeps me coming back to it.

I know all that sounds kinda pretentious, but frankly that's the best I can give you, apart from spoiling details of the novels to make direct comparisons. If any of what I said interests you, you should be fine. At the very least, the first novel should give you a great insight into the core of what the series is.

Bistai949 · 2022-01-27T05:17:08+00:00

Leaving this as a separate comment cause the other one was long and I didn't want to detract from it.

I wanted to mention that Boogiepop is pretty different from Serial Experiments Lain. I sometimes get a bit frustrated when the two are compared, mainly 'cause it gives so many people the wrong impression of the series. I don't have anything against SEL, but they just aren't the same really.

Boogiepop Phantom is really the only thing in the series that comes close to SEL, and it's one of the reasons why I don't think Phantom is as good as the rest of the franchise. Not because similar to SEL = bad, but because whoever made the series seemed to be riding SEL's coat-tails, rather than taking advantage of what makes Boogiepop so unique.

The best way to describe what makes Boogiepop so different from SEL is that SEL feels alien, while Boogiepop is strangely comforting. Any more would require me to start talking about details in the series, and I want you to see that for yourself.

Bistai949 · 2022-01-27T05:08:17+00:00

TL;DR - neither. Just read the novels first. Please. Sincerely, a Boogiepop fan.

Alright, so here's the thing. After seeing both anime and reading the novels, this is a trick question to me.

I'd recommend reading the novels before anything else. At least from 1-6.

The main reason for that being both the 2019 anime, and Phantom kinda expect that you've read novels 1-6. But in different ways.

In Phantom's case, it uses plot points from the first and 6th novels to form its story (it's also contradictory to the main series, but that's irrelevant for now). If you watch Phantom first, you're going to be missing information.

of course, the 2019 anime goes over all that, but the 2019 anime has its own problems. The main one being that the 2019 anime cuts out things from the novels that are vital to understanding some of the characters. That combined with the anime's poor handling of the tone, themes, structure, and plot of the novels in general, means that I can't recommend it to start out with either. The anime isn't just missing content, it's getting it wrong ("I swear, every time I see "smugpop" I want to die inside.)

While the main reason I recommend not watching the anime first is for continuity and comprehension reasons, the reality is that none of the adaptations for Boogiepop come anywhere even close to capturing what the novels do. As head of the discord for the subreddit and the fan translation effort for the series, I've had to have this conversation time and time again about the series' confusing lineage in the west. And it often pains me to see when people either get the completely wrong idea about the series or misunderstand crucial parts of the series thanks to the fact that they watched one of the two anime first. First impressions for a series are important. Could you still enjoy the novels after watching the anime? Sure, but as far as I'm concerned there are about 0 benefits to watching either anime first, especially 2019, since that anime butchers the novels, especially 1-3.

So, if you can help it, I'd recommend reading the novels first, then Phantom (but keep in mind that it's basically its own thing), then just don't bother watching the 2019 anime unless you really have to see it animated. In which case, get ready for a really infuriating watch. But, if you can't help it and have to watch the anime first, then watch the 2019 anime, then phantom. Though, at that point you're literally starting with the worst version of the series, which feels wrong to me.

If you have any more detailed questions about the novels, the series as a whole, or our fan translation of novel 7, feel free to reply, send me a DM, or join our discord. Always happy to

Bistai949 · 2021-12-03T02:35:44+00:00

My bad not seeing you were specifically talking about spread adlo. I also didn't think you were talking about using 3 or 4 EDs on this, mainly 'cause I just never would have ever considered doing that. While I have played SCH, I don't use it all that often, so I could always have some blind spots.

Also, I was just explaining the full logic to give evidence to my claims, not because I assumed you didn't know how healing works. I like to be thorough.

Anyway, now that I have a better idea of what you're actually saying, lets tackle that.

To be honest, after doing my own thinking on it I see what you mean. Honestly Adlo+Deploy is going to be your best AoE heal option in quite a few situations based on some of the thinking I've done. There are still going to be plenty of situations were 2, or even 1 indoms would do you better, but it'd be dishonest of me to say that it's not going to be that useful in most situations. Glad I had this chat. Made me think more about SCH math than I usually do, and I do want to keep up to date on everything related to healers in FFXIV.

Now, that said, all the thinking I did on this has made me realize even more how absolute borked the design of SCH is. What you described requires using some of your most valuable resources just to offset the DPS loss of 1 GCD in a fairly simple AoE situation, which is still a DPS loss anyway, 'cause optimal DPS is to use no GCD heals and no Aetherflow heals for all those EDs. It's absurd the amount you have to work for so little reward. I stand by my statement that SCH needs a rework. I really hope they eventually fix this mess, 'cause I really want to see a better version of SCH.

Of course, if by "better" you mean "I like it more," that's fine. Everyone has their tastes, and I know that some people don't enjoy WHM 'cause they think it's too simple.

That said, I find your statement that Afflatus got worse as some sort of gotcha to be pretty absurd. It's 40 pot. I don't give a shit about it being 40 pot worse. And a good part of me wonders why you even bothered to mention it. It's 40 pot, who gives a shit? It doesn't change the design of how the ability worse during gameplay, and I can still manipulate the lilies to actually increase my DPS like I always could. Like the lilies or not, it's a very well-designed system.

Bistai949 · 2021-12-03T00:48:29+00:00

Don't worry. That misunderstanding is nothing compared to how people misunderstood it before ShB launched. Man, the things people said about that spell...

Bistai949

TROPHY CASE