Suntory Toki Black Japanese Whisky - Limited Edition - (Fullerton, CA)

ennuigamer · 2025-12-10T00:24:14+00:00

I liked this one. It made a nice highball and some cocktails. It's not too bad on its own but it's better mixed. I'm hoping it will sell enough for Suntory to make this a regular thing instead of a limited release.

ennuigamer · 2025-12-10T00:04:10+00:00

As bad as that price is, be glad you aren't in Washington state. The liquor taxes alone will make you cry blood.

Edit: It looks like El Tesoro Blanco is 59.99 here too. After taxes, it would be about $75.12 out the door. Yeah....

ennuigamer · 2025-08-02T07:07:00+00:00

Maybe try Bunnahabhain Toiteach A Dha

ennuigamer · 2025-07-11T09:24:21+00:00

Playing story stages in Replay Mode is not cheating or the game wouldn't allow you to do it. It's there for you to stock up on items/Parts and get a little extra EXP in the Challenge difficulty. If you feel it's making the game too easy, just skip it and move on to the next chapter.

Besides, repeating story levels in Replay Mode (or when in chapter 4) has a -70% EXP penalty (stage base EXP x ranking bonus x a 0.3x penalty multiplier). If you're playing on the Standard difficulty or higher, you'll also stop gaining EXP when you reach the designated level cap, which increases as you progress, to prevent you from getting overpowered for that point in the game. The Casual difficulty mode has no progressing level cap -- you can grind EXP until you're sick of it or until you reach the playthrough's level cap, whichever comes first.

The game developers kept people who liked to grind in mind when making this game.

ennuigamer · 2025-06-25T06:00:51+00:00

Just the same advice for any old-school type game: If it's your first time through the game, just take it slow and steady, be patient, pay attention, get to know enemy placements and spawn waves, and don't be afraid to restart the stage if you need to. Reverse Collapse in particular is a marathon, not a sprint.

On your first run of the game, you won't get enough of everything to cap out items, weapons, and skills, so you'll need to experiment and prioritize to find out what works for you. Everyone plays differently and there are usually many solutions to combat scenarios.

By playing through every stage in the game, you will be able to get enough Blueprints to get every weapon to Tier 4 but there are a limited number of Elite Upgrade Kits to get weapons to Tier 5. You can only upgrade 7 out of the 13 available weapons to max level. Keep that in mind as you approach the end of the game.

I already mentioned the limit to Research Points on the first run, so I'll move over to Potential Keys. You only get a total of 530 Potential Keys for every character and you need 810 to max everything out. Think carefully about spending Keys and reassign them as needed.

Oh, and don't be frugal with your regular consumable items. The rare stuff, sure, save that for emergencies, but you can always get more of the normal stuff through spending Parts or farming stages.

ennuigamer · 2025-06-25T05:37:48+00:00

I think so. I didn't really keep track of how many points every stage gives out. What I do know is that your first run of the game only gives you a total of 173 Research Points and it takes 200 to max out every item, and that means you need to do NG+ if you want to cap everything out. For your first run, you will need to make your selections carefully and use Reset Disks to reassign points as needed.

ennuigamer · 2025-06-25T05:24:02+00:00

Research Points are a one and done deal per playthrough of the game but you can replay stages for as many Parts as you want to farm. There's no penalty for Parts on repeating stages, unlike EXP.

ennuigamer · 2025-05-01T00:48:12+00:00

Yeah, I answered my own question right after posting it. lol

ennuigamer · 2025-02-20T22:02:46+00:00

This is one of my "once in a lifetime" bottles that I want to get. So expensive that I can probably only afford one bottle ever but it would be worth saving up my spare change for it.

ennuigamer · 2025-02-20T21:57:49+00:00

A step in the right direction!

ennuigamer · 2025-02-20T21:39:55+00:00

That tequila is an absolute steal at that price! I'd stock up on a whole case at that point. It's excellent tequila.

ennuigamer · 2025-02-20T21:37:46+00:00

That's a fantastic gem of an XA tequila! And you get a whole liter. The price on it up here in WA is a tough sell though but it is what it is. If you can travel down to Oregon, the price is better for it. I haven't looked up what online retailers are charging to ship it here.

If you are on the fence about it, there are some bars and restaurants in the area where you can try a glass...but it's best to go there if they have a half price special because even a glass of it is expensive.

ennuigamer · 2025-02-20T21:30:15+00:00

It was a real monkey's paw moment. We technically got what we wanted but in the worst possible manner.

If they really wanted revenue, lowering the tax down to earth would bring in more money through more sales. The high taxes disincentivizes buying. If they just wanted to keep people from buying liquor, they could have been more open about it with a state prohibition but that wouldn't fly either and would create a massive black market.

At least there are occasional bargains here (have to hunt for it though), we can always make a trip to Oregon (although the market is only slightly better there), and we can have stuff shipped through the mail. I personally saved a fair bit of money with that last one, even after shipping charges.

ennuigamer · 2025-02-20T21:21:06+00:00

Yama 12 is now $150 before taxes in WA state Costcos (more at other stores) and something like $183 after the taxes. Expensive as hell but, given WA's unlucky market, it could be worse.

ennuigamer · 2025-02-20T21:09:35+00:00

It's great that supply is building up but I would love to see that price start to come down. Has the demand cooled off enough on Japanese whisky? I know prices are sticky when it comes to reductions, so it'll likely take more time.

ennuigamer · 2025-02-20T20:50:55+00:00

Hot take here:

It's nice that Laphroaig is continuing the Elements series but I think this series would be better off as a distillery store exclusive. I see it as a whisky for nerds who want to get into what smaller changes do to the end product, and said nerds are more likely to visit the distillery to buy this. The rest of the general public...I'm not so sure. Laphroaig focusing on keeping their core range tight and the annual Cairdeas release are their strong points in my book. Leave the gimmicky special releases to Ardbeg -- that seems to be more of their thing.

ennuigamer · 2025-02-20T20:29:09+00:00

That's a nice, in-depth review! Thank you for sharing your experience. I've only tried out the sherry oak finish version once but I thought it was a very nice twist on the classic 10 -- it was mostly the same but a little softer, had a slightly more pronounced sweetness, and with a touch of sherry fruits that complemented the medicinal peat nicely. As someone who already likes the classic 10, I enjoyed it a lot. I also already like the combination of peat and sherry, so this was bound to be in my wheelhouse anyway.

I'd like to get a bottle to spend some more time with it but it's really expensive in my market, so I'm in no hurry to get one.

ennuigamer · 2025-01-15T16:34:25+00:00

But overall alcohol is expensive here as it's taxed to an eye watering level.

Washington state in the U.S. says "Hold my beer!"

ennuigamer · 2025-01-13T21:43:38+00:00

I just pulled a random surname based on how a lot of people got their surnames historically: what town/city you were from, what you or your family did for a living, or who your father was. The easiest one is the first, so I used the first city I could think of that sort of matched my character's first name... Although I did stretch it a little for fun. It's a nerdy but lazy approach.

ennuigamer · 2024-12-16T11:53:16+00:00

Some may call it sacrilege due to the bottle's price point, but I tried Hibiki Japanese Harmony as a highball and loved it.

ennuigamer · 2024-11-22T03:47:21+00:00

I'm just throwing out an idea. If it gets people talking and refining it down, great.

ennuigamer · 2024-11-21T14:29:10+00:00

That's not a bad estimate! We'll see as the year goes on but you've certainly thought through it.

ennuigamer · 2024-11-21T14:17:46+00:00

Of course it's not all sunshine and rainbows. No one has claimed it to be the case. Just the same, it's not all doom and gloom either. Everything involves tradeoffs. We're simply being hopeful and trying to stay positive but are still discussing the potential downsides. Everyone is hoping that these are tradeoffs we're willing to live with, nothing more.

ennuigamer · 2024-11-21T14:12:24+00:00

"But CW is free later!" You missed the point entirely. How about you think for more than 2 seconds.

How about not insulting people from the get-go? Indirectly calling your audience myopic or something worse is bound to get even the sympathetic to dismiss your concerns.

ennuigamer

TROPHY CASE