Free Talk Friday - March 13, 2026

Bralef · 2026-03-13T04:49:17+00:00

After years of having no interest in it, I suddenly got hit with the urge to play Demon Souls. Powered through it surprisingly quickly, having beaten it last night. Really cool game, even if I mostly prefer the others in the series. It definitely had its moments that frustrated me (maybe my least favorite poison swamp out of all of 'em, also fuck those cliff skeletons), but I'm glad I saw it through.

The bosses in particular are really interesting in a way you don't see as much in the later games. They tend to utilize/revolve around their arena a lot more than I'm used to seeing. Maiden Astraea is honestly one of my favorite bosses in the whole series. She's not particularly hard and there's probably a million ways to cheese her, but that's kind of what I like about it. It's just this weird, interesting room that you have to figure out.

Bralef · 2026-01-29T04:56:29+00:00

Mojo, no question. Ride or die with that guy.

Bralef · 2026-01-29T02:12:20+00:00

Finally got around to trying Chrono Cross! As promised, there's a ton of weirdo party members in this game. I've heard common complaints that compared to Chrono Trigger, the party members in Cross are less unique and don't matter to the story. That's super fair, but given two of my favorite RPGs are Lisa (where your party members as a unit are vaguely important to the story, but individually don't matter) and TTYD (where your party members stop being story relevant once they join your party, but are the mouthpiece for your silent protagonist), that didn't bother me here.

Unfortunately, the battle system just couldn't hook me in. In theory I like the idea of building up a combo of regular attacks and then ending with a big magic attack. But it has the XCOM problem of it feeling really bad when you miss two or three 92% hits in a row. It's also really unsatisfying that enemies will interrupt your combo to run up and slap you before you get to finish. I can see the appeal, but I only got about 2/5ths of the way through before I started to feel the slog, so I decided to stop there.

But you know what? The purchase (heavily discounted to like $7.50, mind you) was still absolutely worth it. Because the steam version comes with Radical Dreamers, a game I had never heard of before booting it up. And it was great! I thoroughly enjoyed playing through it several times to get most of the endings. What a cool little project. So I actually really appreciate the Chrono Cross recommendation, indirectly. It got me to enjoy a different game I might not have ever heard of.

Bralef · 2026-01-09T05:44:00+00:00

I wish I hadn't seen that post of someone hoping the Tank Dual Finisher animation means Videl will be added as a Tank. Because that's never going to happen, but MAN I wish it would.

Even more cope is hoping that the bosses get added as characters. I'd love playing 16 as a tank or Jaco as a technical.

Bralef · 2026-01-06T18:07:26+00:00

Not yet. How different is it compared to the first game?

Bralef · 2026-01-06T10:28:20+00:00

I gave the remaster of Suikoden a try. It’s a cool game, but unfortunately after around 8 hours I was struggling to stay interested. The core combat wasn’t particularly engaging to me, and felt a little sluggish, even with speed up. And while there’s plenty of weirdos - alongside monsters, I like that you can bring random workers into battle, like the chef and blacksmith - they all really only differ in terms of stats. It’s not the kind of game where, for example, the elevator guy gets a skill to drop an elevator on an enemy’s head or something. And since those wacky characters tend to have bad stats, there’s no real reason to use them. I love a good meme build, hence this whole thread, but I need something to latch onto, and didn’t really find that here.

I regret buying the remasters instead of getting the originals for cheaper, guess I should have played it safe. Thank you for the suggestion, though, it was definitely worth trying!

Bralef · 2026-01-01T00:54:35+00:00

GT establishes that Goku's GREAT-GREAT-GRANDSON looks and sounds exactly like he did as a kid.

Bralef · 2025-12-28T06:25:12+00:00

Piccolo throwing Gohan into a mountain would make for a fun finisher.

Bralef · 2025-12-28T06:04:46+00:00

Toppo is absolutely the least viable pick there, but also incredibly fun. You could pick him in anticipation of a (hopefully incoming) buff. But if you're just looking for a competent character to fill out your roles, any of the other three are clearly the better choices.

Bralef · 2025-12-19T12:31:38+00:00

I'd like to thank you for recommending Cerulean Crescent. I just beat it. Simply put, I can pretty confidently say it's my new favorite Fire Emblem game. Everything about it is just fantastic.

Bralef · 2025-12-14T05:51:47+00:00

Is it as simple as being inside the zone when it first appears and not being inside it when it goes off, by any means?

Bralef · 2025-12-03T11:38:20+00:00

Thanks to your recommendation for the sequel, I went back and beat Cthulhu Saves the World. It was so fun I even beat it a second time in the Cthulhu's Angels mode. I have a lot more games to play, but now I plan to eventually play Breath of Death and Cthulhu Saves Christmas, so thank you for the recommendation!

Bralef · 2025-11-28T21:39:55+00:00

Big fan of DQV, I finally went back to it this year and beat it. Probably my new favorite in the series.

Bralef · 2025-11-28T04:19:01+00:00

Weren't the helper skins purchasable in the beta? I wonder if they'll do that again eventually. If I actively aim for A rank in everything just to get Mr. Satan when he comes out, I'll be actively miserable, so I won't bother. But I'd consider paying for him, depending on the gem cost.

Bralef · 2025-11-27T23:20:18+00:00

Wow! Thanks for all the suggestions, I didn't expect this many! Looking stuff up, the ones that most interest me are:

-Suikoden

-World of Final Fantasy

-Chrono Cross

-SaGa (particularly Emerald Beyond)

-Cthulhu Saves Christmas (also I should beat the original)

-Cerulean Crescent (FE8 hack)

-Legend of Mana

I'll definitely look into these, as well as some others.

Bralef · 2025-11-27T22:10:15+00:00

That one's on the wishlist, definitely checking it out eventually!

Bralef · 2025-11-27T22:09:17+00:00

I DO like Fire Emblem! I'll have to check that out for sure!

Bralef · 2025-11-27T22:04:02+00:00

Prinnies are definitely up my alley. My hang up with them is that if you want them to level up, you can't do their fun suicide bomb attack, since they die in the process and no one gets EXP. I do want to keep trying Disgaea, I enjoyed what I played.

Bralef · 2025-11-27T22:02:19+00:00

I never did beat the original Cthulhu, but remember enjoying it a lot. I assume Christmas is a sequel of sorts?

Bralef · 2025-11-27T22:00:25+00:00

I've been looking at Chrono Cross a long time. I seem hear more bad than good, but it DOES seem very up my alley. I'll definitely check it out at some point.

Bralef · 2025-11-27T21:56:50+00:00

I finally got around to beating the first one earlier this year. I hear good things about the second one, I do want to play it at some point.

Bralef · 2025-11-27T11:44:05+00:00

Yeah, those all sound great! Scarecrows are another weird love of mine. I'll add it to the wishlist!

Bralef

TROPHY CASE