Moomba

I finally got around to installing Hero Academy. I'm down as Moomba should anyone want to take a crack at thrashing me! Also relevant, Ghost Trick was released for iOS today which is definitely a must play if you haven't played the DS version! First two chapters free. I can't stress enough just how awesome a game it is. Play. It.

A flexible time limit sounds like a good idea - that way we'd be able to keep the game going more easily. Random question - I use the Lazy Newb Pack and I noticed that "Water Depth" seems to be off by default, any clues as to why that might be? It seems kind of odd considering everything else is set to be on. Additionally, do these paramaters only contribute during the world's generation or could we potentially face issues passing around a save if different people have different values set? For example if one person had population capped at 200 and another at 100?

Crap... Dragoon... I might get sucked back into playing this again. But only so long as Dragoon isn't as neglected as it was in FFXI. All in all, the changes are sounding like they're doing what everyone had actually hoped for in the first place - FFXI with better graphics and some important system changes. I don't really know what the point of adding back the old jobs is though - I thought the new jobs in XIV had some pretty interesting ideas. It was one of the changes from FFXI I thought was pretty good.

I think it'd be fun to join in if you'll have me! I only started playing fairly recently, but after some hardcore tutorial reading I seem to have a decent grasp of the game. The military side of things is still a pain though D:

So basically what you're saying is Gundam should never try a different angle and should always run a very similar plot over and over again? You're judging it purely based on the fact it decided to differ from the standard Gundam fare? I "don't get Gundam" because I liked the fact that it decided to explore a different side of humanity for once? The ability for conflicting factions to unite to face off against a greater threat isn't something Gundam should be allowed to explore?

I won't lie, those points are all true and when I watched the movie I expected to be horribly disappointed by it based on the flak it had recieved from most Gundam fans. But despite this, the film brought a refreshing change to the usual Gundam fare - I personally have never been one of those people to go "OMG THEY CHANGED SOMETHING FUNDAMENTAL IN THE GUNDAM FORMULA". The Gundam 00 movie had very few of the things that make a Gundam series... well Gundam, but that doesn't necessarily mean it was a bad film. One of the things it does take from the Gundam franchise is beamspam; you can't deny that beamspam is rampant in pretty much any Gundam series, so I can't say I judge the film on that. The story was a little on the wobbly side, I won't deny that, but at the end of the day, it was an action film and that's pretty much what I enjoyed it for. Sometimes it can be entertaining to watch something for more than just the story. I don't think it deserves to be judged based on it's lack of adherence to Gundam tropes. I don't think there were really any major plotholes though, spoilers aside, Setsuna was different to normal humans, I doubt the same rules apply. It wouldn't be a stretch to believe that in assimilating a normal human they might not learn everything. No, it wasn't the best movie ever, but it was still entertaining to watch.

Going back as far as the beginning of 2009, the anime I legitimately enjoyed and fully endorse (also includes a few films and ovas). Anything in bold means that not watching it is unacceptible. Tears to Tiara Dissappearance of Haruhi Summer Wars Redline Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom Pandora Hearts Katanagatari FMA: Brotherhood Durarara!! Bakemonogatari BakaTest (S1 + 2) Shiki Squid Girl Gundam 00 Movie Madoka Magica Level E Arrietty The World God Only Knows Legend of the Legendary Heroes Angel Beats! Yuru Yuri UN-GO Tiger & Bunny Steins;Gate Mawaru Penguindrum Fate/Zero Haganai That's a bigger list than I originally expected to write. It doesn't include anime I haven't seen firsthand either. Most of the bolded titles are generally considered to be among the best anime of recent years. There's a huge variety of genres in there too so there should be something to appeal to everyone.

I can remember parts of the Bleach manga where it took almost half a year of serialisation to get through a single battle. The only shounen manga I actually manage to enjoy these days is Fairy Tail, since it tends to move much quicker than most of the others and there's usually substance to it. It'll probably devolve over time though... I remember Naruto and Bleach both being pretty fast-paced early in their run as compared to now. In my opinion, it's not so much moe that's killing anime as it is the generic shounen protagonists and genki girls that are constantly being thrown at us. They're always exactly the same, they're always braindead, and they always win through some terrible deus ex machina.

I don't think it's particularly likely to change. Interest will always default to the controversial and dramatic side of the fanbase. Unless you kill anonymity, there will always be extremely vocal people who cause most of the stereotypes we're labelled with. In my opinion, one of the reasons why it may not be quite as bad on the film side of things is because the medium itself doesn't promote interaction between the community quite as much. These days, with multiplayer of all types generally playing major roles in most games, we're always pushed into interacting with other members of the community, often in slightly stressful situations, and that's where the clashes really begin. Additionally, the video game industry has more levels of diversity in what people are looking for when they play a game - from graphics to storyline to gameplay and it's generally nigh on impossible to cater to all of them so someone will always complain about something and spark a war. Plus, we'll never be rid of trolls. Never. Generally, I just tend to ignore anything people try to label me as. It doesn't really matter that much at the end of the day.

I would totally dive into this. Sakuraba has such an immense body of work to choose from, most of it extremely cool. It would be pretty fun to remix I imagine.

All right guys, conspiracy hats on! Why was MegaUpload really shut down?

As far as iOS RPGs go, Chaos Rings is actually pretty good. Song summoner is okay, but I think there's a demo of that that lets you try it out before you buy it or something. Imaginary Range (also Squenix) is kind of interesting but very short.

The real problem is that FFXIV already has a stigma now. Regardless of how much better the game becomes, the first thought people will have is of "that terrible game" due to its state when it first launched. 2.0 might revive it to an extent, but it'll probably never really take of like it could have done.

Should add Macross to that list! On an unrelated note, I finished Dennou Coil, which was pretty awesome. Great setting, story and themes. Some of the characters were kind of meh though. Overall I really enjoyed it though. Somehow stumbled into Noein next instead of rewatching Cowboy Bebop. Not entirely sure how that came about.

Damn I was really hoping we'd see Sho with his awesome mathematical puns. I wonder though... does that mean you-know-who will be considered the villain for the TWEWY stuff, or do they intend to not have a TWEWY villain and instead use them in much the same way as the Final Fantasy characters? It'll be interesting to find out.

I kind of want one of those limited 3DSs - all my handhelds are limited Squenix versions. A pity it releases in April otherwise I would definitely get one

All this Cowboy Bebop talk has made me resolve to rewatch it! Need to finish Dennou Coil first though - one of those anime that I'd never gotten around to watching before. It's pretty good - I love the setting and concepts, though I'm not the biggest fan of most of the characters. The story has been riveting so far too, and nicely interspaced with some slice of life deviations to flesh out characters and ideas. Better than a lot of what I've watched recently, that's for sure.

The music was one of the main reasons I used it as my farming spot. Well, that and the fact that Beast Blood was one of the more profitable quick ways to make gil while the level cap was still 75. Only real downside was having to contest with so many other farmers and the bots. Those bots were awful - we actually ganged up there once and covered the whole zone to make sure they never managed to get a single kill! Kind of fun.

I have no fond memories of goobbues. They were always just that one monster type in every zone that was extremely likely to kill you while trying to level up. Or while on the way to a skillup party in the Booyah Tree. Back in the day, if I needed gil, it would be Beast Blood farming the Gaylas in Zi'Tah.

I- seriously what? Only available for subscribers pre version 2.0 though...

The Chaos;Head anime is terrible, I'd drop that and play the VN instead. The Steins;Gate anime however is something everyone should watch. Additionally, if you haven't seen Code Geass, I would advise doing so. There are many many more amazing, must watch anime, but I just woke up and my mind is kind of foggy.

Honestly, I think, to a certain extent, Eva suffers from this: Warning. TVTropes link. We see so many protagonists in anime these days who are, to an extent, similar to Shinji. It's basically reached the point where whenever an anime pops up with a slightly emo protagonist, everyone sighs and turns away. Eva was and is an awesome anime, but newer viewers might suffer from "Oh no, one of THESE guys again." I still dislike Hope though. See, Shinji takes his angst and pilots a giant robot. He actually does his job despite everything. Hope just whines about revenge and then fails to act on it.

This season seems to be pretty bad for OPs, most of them are pretty terrible. In complete opposition to what I just said, I declare the best OP/ED of this season to be: Momoiro Clover Z - Mugen no AI (Moretsu Pirates OP) Ignoring the often abysmal vocals of course... but that tends to be fairly normal nowdays.

It's not a bad game given its origins - for a game that was concieved and developed by 4chan members, it's surprisingly tastefully done. I played through it purely based on the fact that a lot of people had been talking about it leading up to release and well... it's something that doesn't appear awful that came out of 4chan. It's a statistical impossibility! All in all, it could've been a lot better. The writing varied from pretty good to abysmal, though mostly edging towards the former. The art was decent and the audio was not bad. Quite a bit of dodgy looping though, both on the music front and in some of the ambient sounds. I'd say it was a decent game given that it was a hobby project with no budget whatsoever. Definitely far from the best VN I've ever read though, regardless of all the people heralding it as a new standard for VNs (most of those have never even played a VN before)

Happy New Year! Thinking on it, they should have delayed Skyrim to 2012... year of the Dragon and all!