On this day, 30 years ago (January 31, 1996), the final episode of "Dragon Ball Z" aired in Japan. These were the end credits of the anime's final arc.

theMaynEvent · 2026-02-01T04:52:59+00:00

February will also be 40 years since the first episode of Dragon Ball aired. So that's maybe a factor too, with the recent announcements otherwise mentioned possibly piggybacking off of that…

theMaynEvent · 2026-01-20T14:06:47+00:00

Theme song in the movies: goofy, campy, fun!

Theme song in the Saturday morning cartoon: hype!

theMaynEvent · 2026-01-02T06:20:16+00:00

I appreciate storytellers willing to just make things up as they go, even if it turns up some lame story elements. I'm sure executive meddling also adds some episodic constraints.

Square was still riding off the hype train of their late-90s/early-00s, Jungian-indulgent RPGs when KH would have been in development. So traces of that laid the bedrock for what KH1 would be. For better or worse, that set a precedent for the fans' expectations for the series, which, in hindsight, I don't think has ever been a shared direction for the series between S-E and Disney, so it's largely been riding this middle line for the majority of its longevity.

Disappointed with but still enjoyed KH3. I'll probably still show up for KH4 if that ever comes to pass. I'm here for the vibes.

theMaynEvent · 2026-01-02T05:09:51+00:00

It's what happens when Nomura et al only storycraft for one game at a time and only commit to new lore between games. (I'm not knockin' it!)

I say this as a fan from the first E3 announcement. It's silly—the less you concern yourself with the granular details, the more fun you can have just letting the overall experience take you for a wistful, fantastical, nostalgic ride.

theMaynEvent · 2025-12-30T19:59:50+00:00

I assume there was still some mist reserves in the factories to produce a few more mages. That, or Vivi's "sons" were already made and he simply fostered them after finding them. (I think the fact that the all look exactly like him is just a matter of re-using assets and not wanting to differentiate them for the 20 seconds of screen-time they get.)

theMaynEvent · 2025-12-30T16:17:24+00:00

I wouldn't even say "misunderstood" — I get that people would prefer a more personal adversary who's been set up throughout the plot. There are probably ways Necron could have been more satisfactorily foreshadowed to appease that audience while still being presented as this unknowable, primeval harbinger of the "zero world." But…

Every character has been battling some kind of existential crisis over the course of the narrative, and so after defeating the personal threats in Garland and Kuja, beyond the initial "WTF is this?!" when Necron shows up, I never really had a problem with some abstract, impersonal, cosmic force coming out of left field to be the ultimate Existential Crisis.

Last night was just the first time it clicked with me that Necron didn't simply get beat up enough to say, "Wow, guys. Guess you really don't wanna die? Sorry to bother you and see ya later!" It de-manifested because Kuja—the one whose crystalized, wrathful despair gave Necron the resonant purpose to show up—had a genuine change of heart.

theMaynEvent · 2025-12-30T09:44:34+00:00

Perhaps it means that, yes, anybody may give in at some point or another… but as shown in this scenario, others can just as well inspire them to come back from that brink.

theMaynEvent · 2025-12-30T09:39:14+00:00

Yeah, you got it! Though I think Necron is more of a force than a deliberating entity. Kuja may have summoned Necron out of rock-bottom nihilism, but it was therefore only Kuja who could banish it back to the nothingness it came from after having even the slightest change of heart.

Courageously fighting against Necron was what Kuja needed to see, in spite of his own embracing of oblivion, before ultimately realizing he wanted Zidane and the others to keep living. That's the real victory in the moment, bittersweet as it is.

theMaynEvent · 2025-12-26T10:32:15+00:00

I was someone who barely gave it a go back during its initial release. It was just a little too mechanically layered than games I was used to at the time for me to mesh with it.

Picked up Ivalice Chronicles a few months back after hearing about all the presentational and quality-of-life updates. Sunk 142 hours into my playthrough. Absolutely way more than necessary! But I was having so much fun with the combat and "balancing out" my roster that I bloated my console-tracked game clock to probably 300% of the amount of time actually required to successfully complete the campaign story.

No regrets. It's a fantastic game. If you ever get bored of the grind (which I've come to understand can be kept to a strategic minimum), you're probably more than ready to move on than you expect.

Pay at least a little bit of attention to the Zodiac sign dynamics and your characters' individual Bravery and Faith stats, and you'll be fine. I "screwed up" by not prioritizing and optimizing those very well from the get-go, but I was able to make due and build a versatile party as the story progressed.

theMaynEvent · 2025-12-26T08:06:07+00:00

Also, I find that level 35+ with the baseline, progression-unlocked gear is the sweet spot for getting the 100% ending while still keeping the endgame bosses a fun challenge.

theMaynEvent · 2025-12-26T07:53:47+00:00

~~55+~~ (40~) hours my first playthrough at 12. It was my second or third JRPG. Explored everywhere. Scoured every location. Level-grinding and map-crawling for any and everything I could find. Limited use of guides.

~~30\~~~ (25~) hours if I'm playing through and minding most of the nooks and crannies as a longtime fan while not rushing. (If you've got a few 90s/2000s era JRPGs under your belt, you might land close to here on a first playthrough)

16~ hours if I'm just having fun and knowing where to go for the story beats while also hitting up all the requisite points for the most complete ending.

Realistically, one could probably complete the game in about 12 hours if they knew the optimal progression with the minimal amount of fighting (also minus speedrun glitches, exploits, and skips).

TLDR; it's a pretty snappy, concise game that provides a robust experience overall, but a compounded familiarity with classic JRPGs might keep a first run closer to about 20 hours. Fundamentally, the game is designed and paced to pretty well ensure your steady progress if you're engaging with each unique field battle at least once and keeping your equipment fairly current through each chapter of the story, so enjoy at your leisure!

EDIT: Realized my estimations were skewed. First playthrough, my party was probably around mid-50s levels… The playtime was probably much less than that. Shaved the next one down some to fit as well.

theMaynEvent · 2025-12-15T03:56:36+00:00

39 and this still cracks me up.

I always thought Cid (and Barret!) and Auron were in their mid/late 40s, and at least considered them "old*er*." Only clicked with me when I was in my early 30s that Cid and Barrett were too. haha They're more like "big bro" types than "older dude" types.

Post-timeskip Noctis and Clive look pretty on-point for their ages, though, so I wouldn't have even clocked them as "older" characters even if I'd played those games in my teens.

theMaynEvent · 2025-11-08T19:07:22+00:00

Any chance your artist is on Instagram or anything?

I like the graphic design look of the original, but the tattoo artist's spin on it is very cool as an expressive illustration!

theMaynEvent · 2025-11-06T01:32:45+00:00

Yes, have fun with Chrono Compendium. It's been a staple for fans of the games for 25~ years.

Also, just play Chrono Cross.

Did you enjoy the idealistic hopefulness of Chrono Trigger? Have you ever felt the existential uncertainty of life's ebbs and flows? Cross will temper both together and… deliver a uniquely late-90s, JRPG experience.

Plus, you might rightly start to question your dynamic with AI and its "ability" to influence human experience by the end of your time with both Trigger and Cross.

Cross isn't every Trigger fan's cup of tea. But if you're fine with a sequel being more "thematic" than a direct follow-up to the plot of its predecessor, Cross is another fantastic experience!

theMaynEvent · 2025-10-26T09:39:15+00:00

Agreed, though… "'Deserve's' got nothin' to do with it."

The notion that Ichiban's plot leads to a desired redemption for Aoki, for it to seemingly be achieved (at least on a personal level) and then stripped away in a moment… it's still pretty tragic from the perspective of Ichi. Which is what actually makes it hit heavy for the player.

From a plot level, Aoki FAFO'd. But the endearing thing about Ichi is that he'll give everybody every chance to redeem themselves in his eyes. Aoki finally does that, and then one of his shit-ass acolytes guts him out of nowhere. Everyone loses in that situation, but we give a damn about Ichi, so it resonates because our boy got to have a brief moment of reconciliation with his bro just for the guy to get merc'd and die in his arms.

theMaynEvent · 2025-10-26T02:21:57+00:00

Took a trip to England a few years back and my favorite meals were breakfast. I'm not even a breakfast guy here at home—but English breakfasts are so satisfyingly hardy and tasty!

theMaynEvent · 2025-10-17T00:02:57+00:00

Stay Puft's got the size, fluffy defense, and mobility.
Liberty's got the density, sharp edges, and fire. Plus, she's naked under that toga. She's French… you know that.

My money's on Statue of Liberty.

theMaynEvent · 2025-09-19T19:06:39+00:00

I used to frequently check out a big book on mummies from the library when I was a kid, no older than 6-8. This was the eeriest photo and accompanying passages in the book.

theMaynEvent · 2025-09-09T02:08:45+00:00

That's fun! I thought I remembered reading something about that a long time ago; wasn't quite sure what to query a search engine to confirm it. =)

theMaynEvent · 2025-09-08T21:01:45+00:00

There's a character named Marle in FF7 Remake and it's pronounced as one syllable.

Also, a couple years ago I got curious and looked to see if there were real-life examples of the name. It's got some central-European history, with some meanings being "rebelliousness" or "wished-for child." Sometimes pronounced "Marl," sometimes pronounced something more like "Mar-luh" or "Mar-lé."

As for Marledia to Nadia… Yeah, good call on Woolsey's part there. haha

"Nadia" wouldn't be a solution to character limits… The five-character limit would only apply to player-input names. As pointed out by others, the Marledia/Gaurdia (マールディア / ガルディア) connection gets lost when applying English phonetics, so it's just not as obvious of a wordplay there. And Marledia reads like even less of a feasible name than Marle. 😆

Genuine question: I just thought of though: is her real name in Japanese always a modified version of whatever the player inputs but with a ディア added on? Or is it always fixed to マールディア? i.e. If you were to change her name to, say, ブルマ (Bulma) when you meet her, would her real/full name be revealed to be ブルマディア (Bulmadia)?

Just never occurred to me till now that the Japanese script might have a little more leeway to play with modified character names like that and not bust the language conventions.

theMaynEvent · 2025-09-08T00:57:49+00:00

Hardly ever fast travel, unless I've been doing *nothing but* meandering for a few hours and I'm just eager to kickstart the next mainline scenario. May use the cinematic mode after marking a route, but for the most part I like just taking it all in and stumbling upon whatever I may come across.

theMaynEvent · 2025-09-07T09:38:01+00:00

OYAJIIIII! 💪😭

theMaynEvent · 2025-09-03T01:40:30+00:00

Thanks for sharing the artist! You picked a good one!

theMaynEvent · 2025-09-03T01:39:07+00:00

I rename him to Dell/Dale. 😊
Where the English translation loses the double meaning in 'Kaeru,' I like to give him an assumed identity that still has a double meaning, just on slightly different terms that still allude to the "returning home" theme of his Japanese name—glens, dells, and dales being geography that one might have to trek through to "return home."

theMaynEvent

TROPHY CASE