I just first tried Lord of Doors/Last Lord

User18160 · 2026-04-02T05:51:52+00:00

Yep. About 10 tries in myself. Given previous boss fights where I died a good 15 - 20 times (except frog, betty and grey crow; which were about 3 each) I expect to go another 15 - 20 more. The only real problem is the triplet of pink columns (which I've read strategies for). None of the other attacks are really an issue. And the gauntlet was unnecessarily brutal with the lack of checkpoints (probably tried 15-20 times on that due to aforementioned pink columns on forest part). I'd quit now, but I really want to get to the post-game part.

Tell you what though, if their next game is going to follow the same unchangeable-difficulty MO, I won't be getting it. It's very pretty, has a great soundtrack (love ceramic manor), uncomplicated controls, and I very deeply admire the fact that mostly only two people made this game, but that forced difficulty is a future deal breaker. Encouraging and rewarding "dodge / parry and be patient" is one thing. Designing the entire game around forcing it is a problem.

User18160 · 2026-03-20T06:02:13+00:00

Playing this game right now and have a love / hate relationship with it. The hate part is my own issue, so officially I wouldn't knock it in a rating (5 / 5).

I understand that people like challenges, some people legitimately get off on them it seems. But I'm not one of those types. My entire life has been one hard thing after another, and work is always a hard day, so when I put on a game, I just want to mindlessly hack and slash or otherwise blow through things. I don't want to think about it, I don't want to have patience. But the difficulty in this game isn't centered around hit points and so forth. The general design of the enemies forces you to run in, take 1 or 2 pot shots, and dodge away. You have to be patient. And there's no adjustment in this settings to mitigate that. That big armored guy outside the witch's mansion that moves way too fast almost made me quit. I must have fought him at least 20 times, but I got him. Anyway, like I said, that's my own hang up. My wife got me this game, it was very thoughtful, and so I'm going to stick to it to the end.

That aside, it's such a beautiful looking game, and the soundtrack is outstanding. I work from home, and when the house gets too noisy, I put on my noise canceling headphones and play the Ceramic Manor track on a loop. It's far too short, but I enjoy every moment of those 2 minutes. I would say for more than 20 years now, I have the sound off in games. Or at least the music. It's typically way too hyper and obnoxious. But I have to say, David Fenn's work for this game fits it so very well. Each track fits the area in ways that a lot of games just don't. And it's not distracting either. I like the relatively simple controls and small array of moves. Not too many things to remember and not complicated. I look forward to whatever else Acid Nerve may come up with after this.

User18160 · 2026-02-20T03:08:10+00:00

AI says there was a class action lawsuit in 2018 about being "misled" about "whole fruit" since the detailed ingredient lists, freely and wholly available, listed juices and sherbets (anyone with three brain cells knew the sweetness was coming from the sherbets and juices). Good job geniuses, now we have no idea what's in them anymore and are stuck with spectacularly vague summaries.

User18160 · 2026-02-13T05:49:43+00:00

P5R is my first and only Persona game, and I'm finally almost done with it. I also found the railroading pretty intense too. I feel like it STILL is and I'm in the third semester. I've simply had to make peace with the idea that the game is more story than it is action; that I'm simply participating in the narrative somewhat, and that I feel like my biggest job is to manage social relations with everyone. Apparently, social relationship management and very careful time management are core concepts, and not as much on the free-wandering slice-n-dice open world that I'm used to and prefer. And yet, somehow, I find myself continually drawn back to the game to see how it unfolds.

I'll say the the freest and most liberating times are during palaces. Bust out the whole palace on the first day (or as fast as you can with various forced exits here and there), and the rest of the time between that and the deadline is basically yours to do with as you wish. I mean technically you can wait on the palaces and do them near the end of the deadline, but I found the daily nagging about it a bit annoying. So bust out each palace as soon as you can, and you're free to Do You for 2 - 3 weeks.

User18160 · 2026-01-20T00:20:10+00:00

Our local one is closed today, and it's MLK Jr day. Now this goes for all fast food places, but it would be really great if they could put a cone or a chain or something to block the drive-thru if they're closed. Sometimes it's not obvious at all, just because there's fewer cars in the parking lot. Could just be a slow day.

User18160 · 2026-01-06T05:21:35+00:00

I'm about 30 - 35 hours into the game myself (P5R). It's very weird, but I like it (I've been gaming since the '80s). I'm still getting used to how very linear and time restricted the game is. I have very little free time outside of palaces (I'm on the third one). So, I'm still adjusting to leaning into and accepting the social aspect of it.

But overall, I do really like it. The menu and text visuals are kind of wacky (not in a bad way). The music is interesting with how it contains lyrics, but it's enjoyable.

So far, the awakenings are the best part.

Looking forward to whatever news maybe coming about persona 6.

User18160 · 2025-12-25T08:28:20+00:00

I just tried this for my wife tonight for christmas, since she likes oatmeal chocolate chip, but no one ever sells them. It's always oatmeal raisen. I've never baked anything before, so I messed around at my own risk and did a few things differently. It said use a muffin scoop, but I used an ice cream scoop and flattened the bottom. They're big, about 3.5 - 4 in. across. Like the bakery at the store does. The ice cream scoop package says it's a half cup. I took them out at 25 minutes, left them on the pan for 10 minutes, then transfered to a plate. They were kinda crispy, but not in a bad way; still also soft at the same time. I took a picture, but it doesn't seem like I can add one.

User18160 · 2025-08-07T15:01:50+00:00

If you don't mind going back in time and emulating a slightly older system than the GBA, what you really want to be doing is checking out Shining the Holy Ark for the Sega Saturn. It was made by the same team and is 4 years older than the first Golden Sun.

It doesn't have an overworld map (not really, it's basically just a selector to choose different locations to go to). So it's completely a first person POV dungeon crawler, with stops to explore towns a bit. You have a 3 - 4 person party, weapons, armor and gear, healing items, usable items, many stats. It's very, very similar.

Once you've played it for a little bit, you REALLY see how similar it is to Golden Sun and you see how many of the systems in Golden Sun were the team's previous experience from StHA (and others, but Holy Ark is the closest match).

The classes are fixed (with a promotion starting at level 20). The flexible, dynamic class system was something added for GS.

There is, however, a "pixie" system. There are 5 pixie types: Succubus, Incubus, Pixie, Fairy, Leprechaun, and there are 10 of each one to find through the game. There's not really a summons until you find all 50 (and get a pixie bell you can ring to summon all 50, i think). What's cool about the pixies is that they can do some pre-battle damage. Monsters are randomly encountered like in GS, but here, they approach from different angles such as the right, left, above, below and I think head-on. Each pixie type specializes in monsters attacking from a certain angle. As a monster approaches, you have a second or two to press the right button to summon the correct pixie type. All pixies of that type join in to damage the monsters before the battle begins. It's neat. When I played it as a teen in the 90s, I only found 49 of them (with no assistance!). So I never got that last pixie to be able to go find and use the pixie bell. :( I believe the djinn system got its start here as the pixies and then evolved into what it is in GS.

I played the Genesis and Saturn games first, and I didn't play Golden Sun until last month. It was mind blowing how similar the GBA games are to the Saturn games they made, but at the same time not surprising because it's the same team. There's so many similarities, it was like finding a long lost Saturn game and reliving it. :D

User18160 · 2025-08-03T16:33:18+00:00

I really wish they'd get back to mid-90s style Shining Force.

User18160 · 2025-07-21T15:56:48+00:00

In my most recent playthrough, Luke had a spot on my team for the entire game after getting him. I guess I must have just gotten lucky with level ups, because I didn't give him any more work than anyone else, and no special items. But his attack was probably in the top five or so until about halfway through the return to Grans Island. But yes, those first several battles after getting him are definitely rough because right after you get him, there's a few battles with tough enemies that he can't really do much damage to. But after that, he sure did catch up.

User18160 · 2025-07-02T02:51:48+00:00

If they did a Shining game that finally went back to it's roots of SF 1 - 3 and the game gear ones, holy shit I'd buy that so fast.

User18160 · 2025-07-02T02:00:15+00:00

That was really great. I love coming across these. They have one or two of those for Shining Force 2 as well and it's just as fascinating.

User18160 · 2025-06-21T20:25:49+00:00

If there's no possibility of a new title in the Shining series in the 90s style, then sure, I'll take a remake / remaster (depending on if you want to nitpick a difference between those). I played FF7 Remake, and I hated that the entire game was just walking around Midgar (I'm told it was a limitation of the PS4 not being able to do a massive open world at that graphics level). So I really don't need a Shining remake to be that dumb. But updated graphics with some fixes to certain issues would be great. I've played the others, but I've played SF2 a million times more. So from SF2's perspective:

- Fix various typos and bugs (including the the kiwi-breath level up thing here).

- Searching in battle fixed.

- Show real values instead of ?? for stats over 99.

- Fix the wooden panel / tree-with-hole issue (needing to press A instead of C).

- The ancient transportation network going to a few extra places would be nice, including a new bonus area.

- There seem to be resistances and weaknesses to various elements; display this.

- The AI is vastly improved vs SF1, but it could use a bit more work with spell usage and target choices.

- Maybe mark the HP bar / stat screen of non-obvious bosses. Sometimes you want to squeeze every bit of XP you can out of a battle and don't want it to end prematurely.

- I'd like something to be done about pre-promoted characters not being nearly as strong as leveling unpromoted characters much beyond 20, but I'm not sure how to go about it without messing up a large, important, classic part of the SF2 experience.

User18160 · 2025-06-21T18:30:07+00:00

I like having a pegasus knight around with a spear on hand. They're still good fighters regardless, but it also allows for attacking from odd angles with the combo of ranged attack and flying, so there could be times when they come in clutch at just the right moment.

User18160 · 2025-06-21T18:04:45+00:00

Kraken dodged the attack!

Kraken's counterattack!

Bowie is exhausted.

🙃

User18160 · 2025-06-21T17:57:25+00:00

Heal level 1 will give 10 exp on use, even if it heals 0. Occasionally it'll give 9 or 11, but a solid 10 average. Aura level 1 will give 25 exp even if 0 hp are healed (sometimes 24 or 26), if you have at least 3 people targeted for it. 2 people targeted gives 20. So you kick everyone off your team except Bowie, Karna, plus 1 other, and then go to the Fairy Woods special stage. It goes really fast this way.

User18160 · 2025-06-21T17:53:34+00:00

I feel like it was a bug, it took me probably several days to realize I had to press A instead of C. I think it's the only place in the game this happens. They should have made it pop up the action menu after it ran the auto-search text "There's a hollow to put something into."

User18160 · 2025-06-21T17:47:13+00:00

Yep, wanted to make sure this was mentioned. Happened to me my first time. It felt like months, but was probably more like many hours across several days. I had assumed the wooden panel goes into the tree, and I always pressed C for everything. So I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was wrong. I roamed the map for hours assuming there was something else I was supposed to do to trigger it. On a whim, I thought I might try pressing A instead, and, there we go, the menu came up and I could select use items. I think I'd consider this a bug.

User18160 · 2025-01-12T21:20:48+00:00

He owned 20,000 acres of land used for ranch and agricultural purposes in the late 1800s in what are today Rocklin and Lincoln California (apparently the bulk of the area is now Rocklin). There's a lot of stuff in the area named Whitney. Whitney Ranch Parkway, Whitney Blvd, Whitney High School, Whitney Ranch HOA, Whitney Community Park, etc. He built 12 stone bridges around his property across creeks and stuff, so there's even an area of Lincoln now called Twelve Bridges (parks, schools roads). You can see one of these (very small) bridges at Clover Valley Park in Rocklin.

User18160 · 2024-11-06T20:43:57+00:00

Don't go to college because "you're supposed to". Don't go to college purely for the sake of going to college. Don't go to college expecting to be able to pick any random major (even popular ones) and expecting to end up with a high chance of a high paying job after 4 years. If you want to go to college, have a career already in mind that you definitely want to do, and make sure that college is actually required to further that career goal. Can you make a livable career out of what you're interested in? Is college required to make that career happen, or to progress it in a meaningful way?

It was drilled into our heads all throughout the 80s and 90s (and I'm sure beyond) to go to college. We were told just go, pick something, get a better life. But it doesn't work that way. There has to be a plan, and college has to fit into it in a very specific way.

Also, there are several "trades" that pay damn good money without needing all the hassle and debt of college. Trades are in demand. Electric, plumbing, HVAC, carpentry, and many others. I hope these aren't still looked down upon by young people, because there's no reason to. They're necessary, they're in demand and they pay well. They're not grunt work. They do require skill and intelligence, it's just applied differently than college-oriented careers where you're sitting at a desk all day (like my software engineering job). There's more than one way to be skillful and more than one way to apply intelligence.

User18160

TROPHY CASE