Kiyosuki

I love Bowser and I like the way he looks in this, without the tan. I think something Bowser really needs is an armor effect. Kind of like Mecha Zangief or Potempkin where he doesn't go into his stun animation easilly, especially not with just a little slap from something like Fox's dinky singular A punch. He'll still take the damage, but he won't be stopped as easilly, it'll take consecutive hits or a bigger hit to get him stunned. Speaking of Bowser, it'd sure be cool if these guys were an assist. I know chances are slim but still.

Actually what I meant was just plain automatic but its been a long week. I have no clue where autonomous came from.

Well gameplay wise he could actually be pretty different, but I know that'd be wishing for a bit much.

Eh you know how those "rave review" trailers are. I barely even notice them anymore since they've become so automatic.

Yeah, this would be a good place to end it. Sort of keep the Pirates adventure "neverending". I liked it a lot, I thought it was better than the second film. Although I still like the first best, this third film was a combination of the first film's somewhat higher emphasis on character, acting, and rapscallion adventure and the second movie's big grandiose CG scenes and of course the continuation of its big plot. Also the location designs and cinematography in regards to them was really beautiful. A lot have complained that its too complex, and I guess I can see why but I didn't personally have any trouble keeping up. And I even really liked that it got a bit more complex...and that a lot of the amgiuous siding was because of Will this time, which was sort of a cool book end to the first film where he was such an honest and straightforward do gooder. I also liked that Liz had a huge part in this film. It was basically her movie, but it didn't come out of nowhere as she's progressed from the first film to this one and we've seen her enamorment with Piracy get greater gradually. She sure had a lot to deal with in this movie. A friend of mine who saw it with me noted that it was kind of cool how the first movie was Will's movie, second was Jack's, and this third one was Liz's. Barbossa definitely stole the show though. That guy is the embodiment of everything that makes Pirates as a concept awesome. If they do make another, Jack Sparrow and Hector Barbossa should never not be in the same movie again, they just make it so much fun since they're like the classic rivals, two different sides of the same coin. My only real gripes though, are that I expected so much more from Chow Yun Fat's character but he ended up kind of a putz. Also, when he gives Liz his command I thought it was kinda cool...but it sort of came out of nowhere too. I guess he thought she was Calypso which explains it, and it was cool to see her take on that role and kind of complete her total abandonment of "traditional ladylikeness". But still it felt awkward at first. Also, I kind of wanted Norrington to have a bit more of a noteworthy end. He just kinda appeared, then had a line or two, then died. And finally...Calypso just kinda giving everyone the finger and leaving, after all of that stuff about bringing her back. A bit anti-climactic. lol Not too fitting for a pirates' lot though, and I guess the storm helped but still so much leading up to her turning into a bunch of crabs. But all and all it was a very fun film.

You really feel like a tourist! You gotta love some of the stuff thats said on this site. This is a shooting item. Basically, you hold it in your arms.

photographs of the trophies

My biggest hope is for Simon Belmont. They already have one Konami character in there and it doesn't seem like something either they nor Igarashi would have a huge problem with, although I don't know that for sure of course. I just think right along with Pitt, Simon would make a great throwback character to throw in there. When you think of all the old Nintendo games, Castlevania is just one of the ones on the list. A good idea someone told me too is that he could be a subtle algamation of the other Belmonts via moves etc. Maybe even his alternate "colors" could be Richter (Dracula X was ported on the SNES remember, albiet not in the best way.), Trevor/Ralph, and Julius. Although I think that may be a bit much, just Simon would be good enough for me. For moves, something they could do is make it so he could have 4 of the classic Castlevania weapons, and he could switch between them somehow...probably by using a B motion. I think this would be a neat setup. B - Subweapon use, can be charged for slight additional results. (throws 3 knives at once, Axe goes higher/arc is bigger or something, Cross goes further and faster, Holy Water's fire is bigger etc.) Forward B - Subweapon switch. A small box on top of Simon's percentage shows whats chosen. Selection is of course, Dagger, Axe, Cross, Holy Water (I imagine Stop Watchwould be a bit broken. It'd make a good item in general for everyone). Up B - Spear Thrust. Simon's third jump (Its Richter's "uppercut" move) Down B - Slide. If done in the air it becomes that snazzy kick that darts straight down. (Its a bit similar to Falcon Kick I guess aesthetically but it could function completely different.) For Super Smashes or whatever they are, he could use an Item Crash depending on the subweapon thats currently chosen. That or just fire up the whip.

It has to be said again. I don't think even the people at Sony would be surprised. Saying a Capcom game is console exclusive is like saying Stalin was benevolent.

It was one of the better animated SP episodes I've seen in a while, but the episode itself as a story was just ok.

The whole idea behind the word art is so vague and flexible that really, no one can truly say they know what is art without looking a little pretentious. Its one of the world's truly subjective topics. To me it sounds like Inafune's opinion of it goes along the lines of the "Art is intentionally useless" perspective. The belief that the only way something can become art is for it to become purely free expression with little to no actual use. I guess he's open to his opinion, but I'm of the opinion that its sort of an irresponsible mindset thats heavy breeding ground for mediocrity for a person in his position. Yes, it is a product...and its not totally free expression. But its still a process, and there's a difference between a journeyman who turns his or her craft into an art, and those who just let whatever slide because "its business". Its also somewhat inadvertently condescending to anyone who wants to get into it as a career in the future. Personally though, I think he's just venting out his own frustration. You know half these game designers can say they don't consider what they do art, but you know deep down they do. Its just that that clashes with the harsh realities one has to face in a business like this. But that doesn't automatically mean its not an art. We are also talking about the Mega Man creator here. I mean, why would he feel the need to "blast" Clover over a topic such as "games are not art"? You have to wonder how much of whats said here is just disguised frustration with his own career.

If you had asked for someone to play it with you about a year ago I would have. 75 NIN/WAR on Ragnarok. Not now though. lol Sorry.

I just hope he's not one of those types that doesn't realize its intentionally historically inaccurate.

What I think gives this show its incredible longevity is how fast and easilly Matt and Trey can get an episode out there right on the heels of when a topic is still very hot, because SP episodes are relatively easy to make in comparison to other animation. Its also of course, because they're so tongue in cheek with so many of the topics they openly throw out there. When it comes to animated comedic satire I'll always love the Simpsons best, but no one can touch South Park when it comes to satire on current events. Not even close. Its gotten it into its own kind of art. You could argue yeah, that its mostly shock value. You can't argue against that too much, but just because it is shock value doesn't mean its any less relevant depending on the topic. There was a story on CNN about this past episode, glad to see some people understand not to take the context of the episode by surface value alone.

Saw it last night, 12:01 at the Chinese Theatre. I don't want to say too much until more see it, but it was glorious.

In my opinion, Sonic's fall from grace...while attributable to many smaller things...is mostly because of this. The over reliance on the Sonic Adventure engine. I really don't think SA was that bad, like a poster here said it had good promise and seeing as how it was the first true next generation Sonic game...it could go and grow in so many new directions. The only problem...is it didn't. It hasn't really gone anywhere since then. Every major game since that time has been some sort of stretching of the SA engine. I mean...its one thing to maintain a gameplay style, like what Mario 64 did for Mario, or what Orcarina of Time did for many of the major Zelda games since then. But its the general style, elements are still played around with and the very build...the engine of the game is rarely the same. The Sonic series has been using the same damn engine for almost 3/4th of a decade now...with almost no tweaks to gameplay, interface, even graphics to an extent...nothing. A friend of mine and I went to last year's E3(The last one of its kind I guess now.), and when we tried the 360/PS3 Sonic demo we had a big talk about this, and how its just become totally inexcusable how lazy the Sega/Sonic Team programmers have gotten with this series. Completely new system...new character...and the game still feels exactly like all the console Sonics since Adventure and in all honesty...the graphical improvement is barely substantial as well. I was actually pretty shocked that even now on a new system, they've still barely updated this thing. Still suffers from the same camera problems, the characters' motions look exactly the same, everything feels like it was just a new level in Sonic Adventure which is just inexcusable. So really, while there are many other problems...I think the series has lost its sense of adventure, surrealism and adrenaline, and just become sort of this generic rock/techno...thing, and the focus of each game since Adventure has been really unfocused with so many characters...among other things. But essentially, Sonic's being slowly killed with inaction and lazy programming. Because of that, these games have a stigma now for being below sub-par quality games. Some of the 2D games have been good, and I tried Secret Rings for the Wii at E3 too and we all really enjoyed it. Its the first Sonic game in years thats felt genuinly new, its Sonic's best bet at maybe surviving this gen. But generally...the SA gameplay system just has to be shot and killed. If Sonic doesn't appear with even some sort of change or new style, it may actually be the end of the character...and I thought I'd never say that.

Three words. "C____ o__ O_____". Have fun solvin' that mind-binder. The Cave of Ordeals?

Damn, Ken's place looks pretty nice. I can't wait to hear how they'll update the Kid Icarus music.

One of the small little details I love is how the different tunics/armors actually look different this time. I kind of wish you got a straightforward "red" armor thats strong against fire (but trade off is you're more vulnerable to some other elements like ice, similar to the other one.) since so many enemies use fire against you. The Magic Armor looks cool but it just drains the ruppee's so damn quickly. Its useful if you switch really quickly though for certain things, although I haven't really thoungt anything's been that much of a threat to you in this game.

Have any of you guys tried the so called "Enforced Class challenge"? Its a challenge where you start a new game, and build each character as a distinct "class" or job by allowing them certain weapons, abilities, and stat modifiers on the board and restricting them access to certain others in order to make them all unique. Like if you made a character a "Ninja", a character could use motes (as Ninjutsu) and some limited Green/Arcane magic (the enfeebles like blind etc). They'd have access to all Ninja Swords, and up to a certain level of Daggers. Or if you made someone a "Red Mage", they'd have access to all magic forms except summoning, but they'd only be able to go up to 2nd or 3rd level magic spells (I can't remember off the top of my head.). They'd also be able to use swords, but no shields and only a certain number of magic and physical augments to make them the jack of all trades but master of none. There's a whole FAQ for it over at Gamefaqs. I think some of the restrictions are a bit too rigid, but hey it is self enforced so you can probably make an exception or two. Generally though I think I may try it, it sounds sort of cool. Challenging.

Please, for the sake of mankind, no inter-game time line threads. If anyone is to blame, it's Matsuno himself, who included all of the similar names of places, characters, and coincidences of the story events when he wrote the script. Heh, you mean like the Zelda timeline nonesense? I didn't intend to...because its all hypothetical. I like to talk about that sort of thing just for fun. But don't worry, I understand, apparently for some people that simple fact is extremely hard to understand, turning simple speculative talk into serious business. I was just curious though where that whole idea came from in the first place...like what in game brought it out.

In FFT there is a healthy amount of discussion about the ancient times when airships ruled the sky, and technology was prevalent before some cataclysm. Interesting. Its been a while since I last played FFT but I vaguely remember that now. It could still go either way though, or be treated as maybe not the same universe and make perfect sense no matter how you look at it. Thats pretty neat. I mentioned this to my best friend before though the other day and something we threw out there...is that if this was hypothetically the way it went, what if the "modern world" seen in FFTA was actually Ivalice in the future? Like..the days of FFXII were a way far back and forgotten time, while the FFT Ivalice was the equivalent of our medieval period? What if the book Mache and co get was some kind of funky magic time travelling book that brought back a lot of the people in that period to the ancient times?

OMG SONIC'S GONNA BE IN THAT'S AWESOME!11!!!1!!!!!1!11!!!!shift+one!1!! If you look at them in a certain way they kind of look like Pikmin.

You can already do this, it's called Directional Influencing Mmm...maybe but I wasn't really thinking of that particular trick. Thats more of a damage control move. I was thinking like...a way for him to get around that could maybe temporarilly make it harder to get him into a stun animation. You know, kind of similar to how the Juggernaut is in MvC2 or Mecha Zangief. Its not invinsibility but it makes it so he can't be the victim of pesky bitch slapping quite as much. It would kind of fit the character's motif don't you think?

I hear often that people say or think that FFXII takes place far before FFT and FFTA. Where's that theory coming from? I'm just curious.