Desbreko

[color=#4B0082]I usually read up on games on the net and (if they're covered) in Nintendo Power to see what they're like. A lot of the time I don't really pay much attention to review scores, I just look at the information on what the game is like and decide from that whether or not I'd enjoy it. I mainly buy first party Nintendo games, so I guess you might say I'm loyal to Nintendo. What it mostly comes down to, though, is that I don't have the money to buy a new game every month even, so whatever I get, it had better be good. So I have to pick out my favorites, and a lot of those happen to be Nintendo titles. The Zelda series is really the only thing I follow without fail. Yes, I was ready to fork out the dough for Navi Trackers, even if it had been released separately (or at all in the US). And yes, I was disappointed that it wasn't included in the US release of Four Swords Adventures. I admit, I'm a bit obsessed like that.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Don't worry, peoples. I have all the pics saved now, and you know how I love [url=http://www.sweethypocrisies.com/rupees/otakufiles/][u]archiving things[/u][/url].[/color]

[color=#4B0082]That's a good point. The lack of basic courtesy from a lot of people isn't just limited to the online realm. But I think it is a little more prevalent there. After all, it's a lot easier to be a jackass without consequences over the internet than in person. See [url=http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19][u]John Gabriel's Greater Internet ****wad Theory[/u][/url].[/color]

"What a relief!" Plopping down onto the soft couch cushions with the rest of the Heroines, Yuna let out yawn. "That's something I never want to go through again." Everyone's thoughts echoed Krystal's comment, the group silently concurring. Then she yawned. ... Then Ada yawned. Soon it had spread to the entire group, causing Xiaoyu to giggle. "Hmm?" Lara glanced over to see what was the matter. "What's so funny?" "Yuna gave us the yawns!" Xiaoyu said in between giggles. "What? Me?" Yuna looked slightly embarrassed and everyone broke out into a chuckle. A few moments of silence passed, then Samus yawned again. "We have been up all night -- fighting zombies no less." She stood up and stretched, lacing her fingers together and bringing her arms up over her head. "And I think it's past my bed time. Goodnight everyone." Waving to her teammates as she disappeared into the hallway, Samus retired to her room for some well deserved rest.

[color=#4B0082]No offense, but I think that's a bit of a cop-out. I know for a fact that Mario and Kuja have a ton of moves and magic at their disposal. Just look at all the things Mario can do in Super Mario 64, as well as other Mario games. And then Kuja has the entire black magic line from FFIX at his disposal, plus Trance for further possibilities of destruction. CJ and Shadow seem to have a pretty big arsenal of weapons from what I've heard about their games, and I'm sure Crash has his fair shair of moves. A 3D platformer with nothing but "punch, kick, jump" would be pretty boring, after all. In FF Survivor, I played Cecil and had nothing but his sword, armor, and about half a dozen low level white magic spells to work with. But I got creative and did a dang lot with those few things I did have. I took a few creative liberties, sure, but they still fit the character. And at no time did I feel like I was at a disadvantage because he didn't have Cloud's super-human strength, Sephiroth's arsenal of magic, etc. Just because a character doesn't have quite the range of abilities as someone like Samus or Yuna doesn't mean you can't still make the best use of what you do have and come out even. Get creative, pull some crazy crap, and show that your character is good at what he does![/color]

[color=#4B0082]Probably going to do an update some time over winter break here, just because I have the spare time. Not sure when exactly, but most likely some time soon. But anyway, a lot of those Fruits Basket avatars are good, except for one problem: They're in png format and they need to be in either [b]gif[/b] or [b]jpg[/b] format in order for me to add them. For most of those -- the ones without a lot of shading/color gradient, such as the second Yuki avatar -- gif would probably be the better choice, since the 256 color limit would be negligible while still keeping the image nice and crisp. Jpg introduces compression artifacts which can blur the images, so that's best used on images with more gradients and a high number of individual colors where it's not as noticeable. So yeah, just a little tip for people there. Don't pick and format and use it on everything, but rather, switch back and forth (as well as tinkering with compression settings) depending on the image in question for best results. :)[/color]

[quote name='Baron Samedi][size=1]Obviously the [COLOR=SlateGray][B]Iron Fists[/B][/COLOR'] will win this one![/size][/quote][color=#4B0082]And you obviously haven't seen the size of Samus' morph ball. :p[/color]

[color=#4B0082]My family used to keep everything secret. Only a few times (at least to my knowledge) did anyone know for sure what they were getting. Then we woke up and realized that trying to buy things for people without directly asking them what they want can be a stressful pain in the butt that no one wanted to deal with. So we kind of stopped doing that. Now from around the start of December, the question, "What do you want this year?" starts to float around the house. Usually people have one or two more expensive things they'd like, so people usually end up going together to put money in on them. In my case, I'm asking for a new TV, since the one I have now is an old piece of crap that really needs to be replaced. So most of the family will probably be putting money in on that. And I have to disagree that a lack of secrecy makes gift giving pointless. The way my family does things, as described above, people usually end up a lot happier with their gifts than if everyone had separately bought them something small and random. Which means people are also happier about giving the gifts, because they know they're giving the person something they'll really enjoy. And with most or all of the rest of the family putting money in on things together, they can usually buy something the person wouldn't be able to afford by themself.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Pretty much any time my older brother gets it into his head to be an annoying little prick while he's bored and has nothing else to do. Which is all too often now that he's out of college and has nothing to do in between looking for a car and/or job. My bedroom door has no lock (heck, it doesn't even have a doorknob at the moment), so there's not much I can do to keep him out. So he likes to sit in here, trying in various ways to piss me off.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Yeah, sorry -- and not to brag -- but the result didn't come as much of a surprise to me. We had the one little inconsistancy, but other than that, I thought our plot fit together very nicely and everyone fought to the best of their characters' abilities. Most excellent, Heroines. Let's keep it up![/color]

[color=#4B0082]In case you didn't notice, there's another [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=51040][u]thread[/u][/url] almost exactly like this that got closed, just a few threads down on the page. Please take a look at it to see why, and to find a link to another similar thread in the Anime Lounge. Thread Closed[/color]

"Impressive," Samus observed as she watched Bahamut's mega flare sear a wide swath of zombie-covered ground. "Come on, before more arrive." Yuna nodded, running with Samus towards the hill as fast as her summoner's dress would allow. "Wait, hold on." Swapping spheres, her outfit changed to that of a thief, and Bahamut roared a farewell as he faded away. The new clothing being much better suited to fast movement, she continued her sprint, now matching Samus' pace. Samus had to admit, Yuna seemed to be quite versatile with her collection of spheres. But she still couldn't activate her speed booster without leaving her companion in the dust. It wasn't that she had anything against her teammates, but she really did prefer working alone. Things were so much simpler that way. Morphology: Human (Deceased) This specimen appears to have been subject to decay. Skeletal integrity is at critical levels. Cause of death is unknown.Slowing to a halt, Samus pointed in front of them. "Are they getting smarter, or is this just coincidence?" Another wave of zombies was heading straight towards them, and other moans could be heard all around. Spotting one that was clawing its way out of the ground a few feet away, Samus flipped over to her scan visor. ... [i]As if I didn't know that,[/i] she thought before blowing its head off. "They're behind us too," Yuna said. "Then we'll have to blast our way through," Samus replied. "Can you use offensive magic as well?" Yuna's outfit flashed over to a black mage's and she smiled. "Of course." Taking note of how many zombies were around them, Samus quickly formulated a plan. "Here's what we're going to do then. Circle around to the right and clear a path through to that grove." She pointed to a group of pine trees situated at the base of the hill. "There there are less of them in that direction, so you shouldn't have too much trouble. My armor will give me some protection against their bite, so I'll head in the center to draw most of their attention. Meet up in front of the grove and we can finish off the stragglers without getting caught from behind." "All right, I'm ready," Yuna said. "Good luck." Samus smiled behind her visor and gave Yuna a thumbs up. "Go!" Circling around to the right as Samus had directed, sure enough, Yuna found a less densely packed group of zombies. "Firaga!" She shouted, sending out a plume of flames to engulf the pack. "Blizzaga! Waterga! Thundaga!" The elements at her fingertips, Yuna crashed through the zombies in a swirl of magical destruction. Finally, she was in front of the grove, and the rest of the zombies appeared to have their eyes set on Samus. Just then, she saw something bright streak up into the sky. . . . Sprinting ahead at the approaching zombie horde, Samus activated her speed booster. She jumped, somersaulting through the air. Just before touching back down, her space jump boots kicked in, and she jumped again, and again, hurtling along just above the ground. The space around her began to twist and a low whine eminated from her suit. Samus crashed into the first wave of zombies at full speed, the force of her screw attack shredding everything it came into contact with. Adjusting her course a little, she sped into the very center of the zombies -- and stopped jumping. Landing in a crouch, white light flashed down over her power suit. She looked up, then pushed off from the ground. Speeding straight up into the air, Samus counted, roughly calculating her altitude before deactivating her speed booster. The shining light faded, and she activated her missile launcher as her upwards momentum slowed, then reversed. Super missile after super missile rained down upon the zombie ranks as Samus fell, leaving craters scattered across the landscape in their place. Finally landing, Samus deactivated the missile launcher and made a break towards the grove of pines, blasting a few zombies left in her path. "Samus!" Yuna was relieved to see her teammate had made it through. "Are you okay?" "I'm fine," Samus said, stopping a moment to catch her breath. "Did you have any trouble?" Yuna shook her head. "No, I got through okay. They especially didn't like my fire spells." Samus smiled, knowing how combustable the dried out zombies could be. "Good, let's keep going. After we get through these pines we can start up the hill."

[code] » Comments (0)[/code][color=#4B0082]It looks like she forgot to close her script tag, so it's interfering with the pop-up script for the comments.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Arik and Amelia have both completed the game, so I pretty much just use them for the endgame areas now. Eddie is up to Abbadon's Mouth, the second of the last three missions in the Ring of Fire islands. Fina is up to D'Alessio Seaboard, but she's also gotten a run down to Droknar's Forge and is up to Thunderhead Keep down there. So if you've got a character in the Ring of Fire missions, Eddie could join you, or if you've got anyone in Kryta or the Southern Shiverpeaks then Fina could.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]UW/FoW/SF runs are always fun. Usually I'm on AIM in the evenings if I'm at my PC (like now), so if anyone wants to do something in game, just IM me -- that's what Alex usually does. My screen name is in my profile. Eddie is also at Abbadon's Mouth, by the way. Getting me, Annie, you two, and anyone else together for that would be great.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]It stands for Wild Arms 4. *changes title and adds it to the thread directory* I've heard bits here and there about the previous games in the series, but not a whole lot. I never really looked into them before, first because I wasn't even aware of them on the PS1, and then because I didn't have a PS2 for quite a while. But I might have to take a closer look now.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I've mainly been playing Animal Crossing: Wild World lately; ever since that and Mario Kart DS were released, my activity in GW has dropped off. But I have been playing on Fina every other day or so. Most of the time me and Alex go out questing together, me on Fina and him on Leah. Last night we did Ice Caves of Sorrow and Iron Mines of Moladune, so now we're infused. The guild hasn't been too active lately, but there are still people here. :)[/color]

Samus' visor darkened as Ada's flash grenade went off. With the flood of zombies surging around them, Yuna was the only one nearby; Samus grabbed her by the hand and they ran towards the edge of the mob. It didn't take long for the zombies to recover, however. "Yuna, get back!" Samus shouted, motioning for Yuna to keep running. Releasing her hand, Samus turned around and gritted her teeth. This wasn't going to be pretty. Steeling herself against the thought of what she was about to do, Samus rolled into morph ball form and charged her boost ball. She waited till the zombies had shambled close ... then released the charge, rocketing forward to plow through the zombies. A quick glance at her radar told her all her teammates were safely out of range, and as near as she could tell, she was in the middle of the zombie horde. A power bomb dropped beside Samus, and within seconds, a shockwave sweapt out to disintegrate all it touched. Coming out of morph ball form, Samus surveyed the damage. It had worked, but none of her teammates were in sight. She could only hope they were safe before dashing back in the direction Yuna had gone. "You're all right!" Yuna said, relieved as Samus caught up to her. "What happened to the others?" Samus shook her head, sighing. "I don't know. I used a power bomb to clear out the zombies, but no one was there afterwards. Yuna gasped, trying not to think about the worst case scenario. "We have to look for them!" "No," Samus shook her head again. "For now, our first priority has to be our own safety. We have to find shelter; and if the others are smart, they'll be doing the same." "You're right," Yuna conceded. She looked around, not having taken the time to see where she was going before. They were standing amid a few groves of trees, graves interspersed between them. And a mile or so away, a hill rose up against the horizon, the last light of dusk fading out behind it. She could just make out a stone building on top; it was most likely a tomb of some sort. "Look, up there!" Following Yuna's gaze, Samus examined the hill. "It's a ways away, but it looks like it would be defensible. And staying mobile is better than standing about in the open." Yuna cheered up a bit, hoping some of the others might be headed the same way. "All right, let's go!"

[color=#4B0082]Probably my favorite insect is the praying mantis, or [i]Mantis religiosa[/i] (Order Mantodea, Family Mantidea). I find them around here occasionally, and I like catching and keeping them as pets. Usually it's not hard to find food for them; moths, beetles, and other easily catchable insects abound in the spring, summer, and fall. Watching them catch and devour their prey alive is lots of fun. For some general info, these mantids grow to about 2, 2 1/2 inches long, and have wings covering their abdomen, which they can use for short flights. Males are usually a tan color, and females are green like the one in the picture. Another interesting thing about mantids is that, after mating, the females eat the males. They're like the ultimate dominatrixes.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Hmm. ... I guess my family only has one sort of tradition that we do every year. A week or so before Christmas, we make Christmas cookies and candy and then get together to put up our tree and decorate it while snacking on the aforementioned goodies. This year we'll be putting the three up Monday evening, so we started making cookies last night. And, of course, there's the usual exhange of gifts, which we do Christmas morning while having breakfast. So nothing big or fancy or anything, but it's fun.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I haven't seen anything like that before, and just from this it's impossible to tell if it's the browser or OB itself. But if you ever see this consistantly happening again in Safari, try viewing the same page in a different browser and see if it loads correctly. If it does, it's most likely just a problem with Safari; if not, it could be OB.[/color]

Samus glanced around at her newly formed team as introductions were made. Ada and Xiaoyu she was already familiar with, but she was taking a liking to the three others -- and taking notes on them at the same time. They had already merged into two teams. ... It wouldn't be long before the competition turned into a free-for-all. But, for now, it looked like everyone would make good partners. Standing to take her turn after Krystal, Samus greeted the others. "Samus Aran, nice to meet you all. I'm a bounty hunter trained in many diverse aspects of combat by the ancient Chozo race and outfitted with one of their most powerful weapons." Gesturing to her suit, she swept her left hand down in front of herself. "This power suit." Pausing a moment, Samus removed her helmet. "But I'm still human underneath this armor. I may have a large arsenal of weapons--" she hefted her arm cannon up to rest on her shoulder to emphasize this point "--but I don't use them without need." With that, she sat back down before adding with a smile, "Oh, and no offense Krystal. I'm sure you wouldn't either." "Huh?" Krystal looked a bit puzzled before catching on to Samus' meaning. "Oh, of course not. None taken." She returned the smile, adding a light chuckle of her own.

[quote]I love you more than I did the week before I discovered alcohol Oh alcohol, would you please forgive me For while I cannot love myself I?ll use something else[/quote][color=#4B0082]Personally, I can't stand the stuff, but I guess it has its uses. :beer:[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I suppose it wasn't the [i]final[/i] boss, but the Thunderbird from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link was one of the hardest end fights I've beaten. First off, you have to use half your magic to cast Thunder, just so you're able to damage the sucker. Then you have to cast Jump so that you can get the height to be able to hit the thing. And you definitely want a Shield spell up so you'll only take half damage. Which leaves you with a pretty much empty magic meter, meaning no Life (cure) spells. So this huge bird is flying around the one-screen room, shooting tons of fireballs down at you, and you have to jump around like a maniac and hit a tiny little spot on it with your even tinier sword to damage it. And as you do more damage to it, it shoots more and more fireballs, some of which seem to be so fast you can't dodge them unless you already know they're coming. I think it took me about ten tries to finally learn the patterns well enough to beat it. What was even harder, though, was beating Ganon in Zelda: A Link to the Past with as few items as is possible to get through the game with. In that case, you die if you get hit three times, unless it's from a single one of his attacks (which he only uses at the end of the fight) that does less damage. And one of his harder hitting attacks is practically unavoidable unless you manipulate his position in the room by how you move around, which took me a long, long time to learn. That one must've taken me no less than 30 tries to beat.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]We already have a thread for Kingdom Hearts, so please use it if you'd like to talk about the game. You can find links to all the existing game-specific threads in the [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=46746][u]Play It Thread Directory[/u][/url], so remember to check it before creating a new one. Thanks. Thread Closed[/color]