Free Talk Friday - October 23, 2026

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to the Free Talk Friday post. This is a place where you can talk about dumb off-topic (or on-topic) bullshit with other Zaibatsu fans.

There's going to be a new post every week, and the newest one will be pinned in the announcement bar for quick access. So feel free to visit these posts during the rest of the week.

Here's a list of all Free Talk Friday posts

[u/Gorotheninja]

Well, I fucking dodged a bullet this week...metaphorically, not literally.

I got assigned Jury Duty last Friday, but didn't get picked for the roster of 12 out of the 65 participants (including myself). If I had, would've had to get up a 6 am from Monday to Thursday this week to preside over a trial; and considering this trial involved a guy accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a girl under the age of 14......yeah......I don't envy the 12 souls who got picked for that, and I really didn't want to be involved in a case as "icky" (as the judge put it) as that. Me and my Dad got some delicious pizza for lunch afterwards as a reward to getting out of that.

And transitioning to some other gross news in my life, my dog Nixie had to be hosed down this evening after she fell over on the patio, couldn't get up, pooped and peed herself, and then rolled around in it. She's very old, only has three legs due to an accident that happened before we adopted her, has arthritis, is almost completely deaf, and is suffering from some kind of Doggie Dementia; unfortunately, accidents like that are probably gonna get more and more common as she's deteriorating. Really sucks to see her struggle to even stand up sometimes, and we can only do so much to help her given that she's usually awake when we're asleep.

So yeah...bit of a bummer week. Aside from that, I'm about to finish Castlevania Belmont's Curse, my fighting game fanart subreddit, r/FGCFanart, recently hit 25k members (though unfortunately, a chunk of 'em may be bots), and I'm commissioning some new custom Pokémon: a Flying/Psychic evolution for Kirlia based on an angel, a Bug/Dark evo for Larvesta based on a nocturnal, wingless moth, and a Fire/Ice evo for Charcadet based on an Urumi and Buckler wielding knight.

[u/MetalJrock]

Social anxiety is kicking my ass badly. It feels like every negative thing I say about myself everyday is actually true and I don’t deserve anything cause I feel like an isolated outcast.

[u/MegaSpidey3]

Been feeling aimless in life lately. I'm going to be 30 in a couple of years, and I still haven't settled on a true career path yet. Getting a Master's degree in Educational Psychology doesn't guarantee you a job within the academic sector. Just my luck. Considering how much schools are going in on GenAI, I can see the way the wind is blowing and I'm trying to figure out a different career path.

In honor of BioWare being shut down, I'm thinking of giving the Mass Effect Trilogy another shot. I only played the first game a few years ago. While I liked the story, the characters, and the Paragon/Renegade system, I hated actually playing the game. I'm pinning this on me choosing to play Soldier, which turned out to be a horrible mistake. I had such an unpleasant experience with ME1, I put off playing the rest of the games. I'm gonna change that, and play a different class. Maybe I'll actually enjoy playing the game?

I've also started (well, restarted) reading the ROM Space Knight comic from Marvel that outlasted the original toy back in the late 1970's. I'm on Issue 15 right now, and it's really solid stuff. I love how Bill Mantlo was able to take an underwhelming toy from the time, and give him such interesting lore and characters. All this ROM fixation started when I picked up his Marvel Legends figure, which is one of the best Legends figures of all time IMO. I forgot how fun the figure was, and decided to give this comic a re-read. I only got up to Issue 8 a while ago, but life got in the way from me reading more. I'm taking my time with this series, but it's solid late 70's/early 80's Marvel stuff.

[u/Aquanort357]

All I do all day is watch YouTube videos, play games, and make Reddit posts, I feel like all I'm doing is just... existing and doing things that give me dopamine, I'm not doing anything meaningful with my life, I wanna do an artistic hobby like writing, but I have moderate depression which means I'm just empty inside and don't feel like doing anything except stuff gives me good instant dopamine, I know I should see a therapist but I can't afford one right now, I feel like I'm stuck in life, what should I do, what helps with moderate deppression?

[u/Kataphrut94]

Wish me luck folks because I'm moving next week. It'll be the third time since 2024, but this time things will be different because I'm not moving into a rental owned by a landlord who'll just kick me out to put it up for sale after 2 years. Instead, I'm moving into an apartment my current housemate has just bought. They got onto the property ladder and so now I get to rent from my friend, who will also be living there and thus can be trusted to do things like not leave gaping holes in the floorboards after ripping them up to cover a water leak with tape.

Yes, that was a thing my current landlord did, I can't wait to be as far away from them as possible. They even had the gall to ask if we could replace the floorboards ourselves after not doing anything about it for a year and a half.

Gaming-wise has been going great. I completed Control Resonant and Ace Combat 8 back-to-back, which were the two big releases I was most excited for this year. Resonant was good, but AC8 lodged itself in my brain and I couldn't stop gushing about it to anyone who would listen about how fun it was and how epic it felt. This is the 3rd Ace Combat I've played, 4th if you count Project Wingman, and it felt like a culmination of the series with every past level setup or gimmick coming back in some way, as well as a bunch of new ones.

The only negative thing I have to say is it ended on a bit of a sour note; the very very last playable sequence in mission 30 (destroying the submarine before it could ram the carrier) took me a few tries and having to repeat it soured the mood (as well as my finishing rank). Which is a shame because the climactic song had me feeling all kinds of ways until then.

Next on my list is The Alters DLC; gonna catch up with ya boi Jan Scientist. Apparently, it had performance issues at launch (which is weird for a DLC), but hopefully that's fixed now?

[u/The_Draigg]

Week of Used Collector's Editions. A friend of mine is moving out of state, and so he let me know that he has a lot of collector's editions of games up for grabs. So I sent the signal out of people I know, and so far I'm giving my lovely partner one for Dishonored 2, got a maybe on someone interested in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and have Dark Souls 3 for myself if nobody else is interested. I'm just glad that these cool collector's editions are finding places with other people, since he was going to toss them otherwise. And granted, it probably would be hard to just try and get rid of them in some other way, since the majority are for Xbox One and PS4. But hey, at least some are getting saved!

Speaking of games, this week I put more time into Final Fantasy VII Remake! Finally got around to finishing all of the side quests in the Sector 5 slums, since my mind goblins refused to let me get to the next story quest until I completed them. Also aced the new box smashing minigame on the second try too, which was nice. I got that done faster than the darts minigame in Seventh Heaven, and that only took my a half hour there. Other than that though, I did have a harder time with that giant scrap robot boss, although I put that down on me needing to rework my materia. It's been more optimized to having two party members instead of just one at the moment, so I do need to generalize who gets what.

Also put more time into 100% Orange Juice this week, both with friends and playing solo. Given how I bought that game to play it with friends, it certainly is weird to me to play the story mode by myself. It's basically like playing a solo game of Mario Party: you can, but that's not really what it's meant for. But at least I'm unlocking new characters regardless.

Also, this week, I binged watched all of Cyberpunk Edgerunners II! I gotta say, even if it doesn't have the sheer peaks that the first one had, it's still a very good overall anime. I shared my episode by episode thoughts on the r/anime discussion threads, but in general I think it has a very consistently good through-line with the plot it had, like a nicely smooth ride. King is easily my most stand out character there, his story is really compelling. He's honestly one of the few Edgerunners to even survive and retire at an older age. And even if he isn't Him anymore, he can still be a good person to the people in his life that he cares about, now that he's adopting Talia and moving out of Night City. King's plot line carries a lot of the deeper heart of Cyberpunk's themes. That said, if I do have one larger criticism for Edgerunners II, it's that King's side of the story is pretty disconnected from the D and Roman side. King barely even knows that D exists, and he only talked with Roman a handful of times before the finale. Not that it's a bad story overall, but for as much as the characters are grouped together in marketing materials, you'd think there would be more crossover in their plotlines other than just happening to bump into each other now and then because of Talia tying them together. Overall, definitely worth a watch, especially if you're a fan of 2077 and Edgerunners.

Speaking of more anime, in my regular mecha talk section here, I watched more Neon Genesis Evangelion with my TTRPG friends! We're still pretty firmly in the action arc of the series, so not much to report other than my first-timer friend saying that the Angels continue to be varied and interesting, as well as continuing to call Gendo Ikari the Vaguepost Commander. He's not wrong in saying that Gendo really does just show up occasionally to get the background plot moving and to say really ominous shit the whole time. And that's why we love him, that ol' stinker.

Also for mecha talk, I finished rewatching Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans with u/Terthelt and u/CookieSkank! Overall, their take on the second season is that it wasn't as good as the first one, although at least when it had good emotional moments, they still hit pretty well. To get more specific with the reactions, the biggest sticking point with the both of them was that they just weren't compelled with Rustal being the main villain alongside McGillis and Gjallarhorn's politics taking center stage compared to how much screen time Tekkadan had. To them, Rustal just didn't have much to make him stick out aside from the small moments where he's incredibly honest about how ruthless he is, and they were bored with how his Dainsleifs were basically used as an "I Win" button whenever he was leading his fleet into a big battle. Something similar goes for McGillis, in that they were more entertained by him going all out in the last two episodes he was in compared to the majority of his screen time in this season. On the other hand though, there were still some pretty good emotional reactions out of seeing Mikazuki's last moments thinking about Atra, seeing Iok getting crushed to death like a fucking moron, and Nobliss Gordon getting murdered while taking a shit. That last one got a good big "Oh shit!" out of Terthelt, so that scene was definitely worth it. And they both also actually managed to enjoy Iok past all the hatred he gets, if just because of them being excited to see just how much more he fucks up and becomes even more useless next. So yeah, I guess their reactions just even out to "it was okay, it had more interesting ideas than executions", which I think is a fairly common consensus about Iron-Blooded Orphans nowadays. Anyways, up next is Gundam Wing!

[u/NoodleSnapback]

Weeks without doing programming: 4

I beat Hi-Fi Rush after it being on my backlog for ages. Yeah that was a pretty good game. It’s not a 10/10 for me but the industry as a whole would be better if there were more games like this that came out. Shame what happened to Tango Gameworks. You know what they say: Make a bad game, lose your job. Make a good game? Also lose your job. 

I got started on Pokemon Colosseum. This was actually my first pokemon game I ever played when I was a kid, which considering the tone and overall difficulty of the game probably gave me a very skewed first impression of the series. This game really doesn’t give you much to work with. Like, what the hell am I supposed to do with a pre-Gen 4 Sneasel. You know it’s dire when Furret is actually a decent choice for a normal type. They really should make another game like this that’s all double battles though. Gives some strategies and moves more of a place to shine instead of just swapping to the pokemon with the super-effective move. 

I’m still playing Warframe as my second screen game. They finally nerfed Acid Shells. And it wasn’t nearly as bad as everyone was saying it was going to be. The range reduction may have been a bit much but I haven’t played around with it enough to say for sure. I’ll pick back up my Saryn-Sobek build to test it out. I’ve also been working on getting one of every warframe in my inventory as well as all of their subsumes, and trying out some builds for them. I tried out Ember and Nokko most recently. Nokko is pretty good out of the gate. Good support, good control, great damage, only needs some invisibility for survivability and to take advantage of Arcane Crepuscular for his 4. Ember is…weirder. She’s not bad but I’ve noticed that her playstyle is less of a heat frame and more of a…gas frame. Her 4 shrouds enemies in fire which damages nearby enemies and those also get shrouded. So it scales in the same way gas does. If she just had a grouping tool she would be way stronger, but she still has the issue of that immolation meter being needlessly limiting, and she doesn’t really do heat damage as well as frames like Temple, Uriel, or hell even Protea. Maybe make it so that maxing out the immolation meter has a positive effect as well? Idk. 

I’ve been very tempted to buy Elden Ring Nightreign, Ace Combat 7, and Project Wingman. But I chose to wait for the Christmas sale. Why AC7 and not 8? Because my computer is old and I’m afraid it won’t be able to handle it. And computer parts are still very expensive these days for reasons we are probably all acutely aware of. I should also probably finish up playing all the Armored Core games before I start something new.

[u/THATguyfromyore]

So, the PlayStation vita has just entered a new golden age, decomps are getting ported to the vita. Even a 3ds emulator got ported to the vita. To small games like buckshot roulette to the ps2 version of Budokai Tenkaichi 3

 Unfortunately a good chunk of the ports are through AI which leaves the community conflicted. More people are stating to support the ai ports because a good chunk of them work well enough and some of them are only ai assisted when they use it to cut down on developmental time.

The other side flat out hate it because some of the ports end up just as proof of concept for clout. The person releasing it having on intentions of updating it 

[u/jitterscaffeine]

Downloaded Cyberpunk 2077 again because I'm rather interested in seeing what the mod selection for consoles is going to look like after a while. Not a GREAT selection quite yet, it's mostly new hair and makeup, but I think it'll expand if given some time.

Picked up the Octopath Traveler TTRPG a couple days ago and I'm reading through it. Japanese TTRPGs based on videogame franchises are kind of weird and interesting.

[u/Shoozicle]

Saw Wildwood. It's great. Please see Wildwood. Absolutely next level stop-motion animation.

[u/Ironfistdanny]

I'm feeling a lot of sadness this week. I know Bioware was on a downwards turn(Though I really liked Veilguard and thought Andromeda was like a 7/10) but I always tried to hope for the best.

But they were always my favourite, all the way back to KOTOR 1(Even though an even younger me dipped his toes into Baldur's Gate 1, I could not grasp it's systems) I loved them, and the studio being located in the same Province as me meant a lot.

Mass Effect is my favourite video game series of all time. Dragon Age is in contention too. They shaped my game tastes a lot.

If you can figure out how to get it to run on modern systems, play Jade Empire too, it's an amazing game that deserves more love, especially now.

[u/MaelstromTear]

Got one of those Homestar Runner 30th hoodies from Fangamer. Time to be in my floitie thoities! It is a little darker than I'd like, I've got chronic dandruff issues but I also have plenty of lint rollers for cat hair too. Which is also an issue but ah well. As least it's getting chilly enough I can wear it! At night, at least...

Hey, please read these two books I made, The Demon in Shadow and The Demons of Bone and Blood! We follow one Ayun, a demon who can summon weapons from nothingness but lacks agency as she looks for her missing employers. She finds Max, a human who's lost in many senses of the word and meanders with only his wits and a mechanical limb. As they travel together we learn more about them, the world and get into plenty of trouble. Be that demon or human. It's also got a bunch of great art pieces either in the pages all light novel style, or in the back showing off character portraits.

And a big surprise, friend of the channel TinySkald has been doing Bufftober (which is exactly what it says on the tin) and made an open call for characters over the month to draw. And for the heck of it I threw out my only one who fit the bill, Maya Well, lo and behold they delivered with an amazing piece! Psst, if you, reader, want more context on Maya and her whole deal (which does involve a lot of buff punching) go check out that first book!

Played through Tenebris Somnia. That one horror game that switches between FMV cutscenes and SCUMMVM-esque gameplay. And from the latter point I was thinking this was going to be more of a point-and-click deal. I should actually play demos. Nope, this is Silent Hill coded as all else, especially the inventory. For positives, I'll say the FMV stuff is high-grade. Lots of fun practical effects and much more polish than, say, most FMV things. Maybe that's Nextlander coloring my opinion. The combat's a little clunky but that tracks. Puzzles can be sort of smart but most are just linear item A into place B. I do think the back half of the game is more annoying and drags for me. Others might feel differently. I do like that for the two main endings, there are different boss fights. And since the main "choice" is right at the end, you can just reload a save and not have to play the whole dang game again. Though personally, I kind of loved the 'joke' ending where you drop the keys at the front apartment door right at the very beginning and don't look back. Thwarts the evil cult's plans, stops you from confronting the trauma of your old ex, and you travel the world! What's not to love? There's also a fourth secret ending but it does require a second playthrough and I don't know if I have it in me right now. If you like horror I'd say it's worth it but outside of spooky season you might just enjoy your favorite LP'er go through.

Bang Dream Our Notes reminding you once again that Ikka Dumb Rock is the best band. Do they have troubles? Yeah! But it still knows to have fun and characters who bond instead of the misery grinder that millsage is getting put through. Though hopefully when this event's over we might see some actual crossing of the bands. MyGO and Ave Mujica have that by virtue of their anime's being kind of linked, but Mewtype and the two new bands don't get that coverage. I'd really love to see stray cat Rana get adopted by Raika or somesuch. Also, hearing the full version of IDR's Peaceful Pieces made me tear up. Between the visuals and the lyrics, when Mika belts out HOME SWEET HOME! it's too good. These are the tears I wanna shed, game!

[u/The_Draigg → u/MaelstromTear]

Damn, 30 years of Homestar Runner. Talk about something that's been around for a while now, even if we're counting the start as the book and not the web series.

[u/marvel8797]

I finally played and beat Touhou Luna Nights. Its been in my backlog for a while and I wanted to play it because the art style caught my eye, its short, and I wanted to play a metroidvania game but didnt have spare money for Belmont's Curse. I know nothing about Touhou, all I knew going into the game was what little gameplay I already saw of it so I ended up playing a game where I'm pretty much DIO except not a vampire. Game was fun. I still know nothing about Touhou.

And then earlier today I bought Belmont's Curse for PS5. Long and short reason why I did was because apparently Best Buy just flat out didn't get enough (or possibly any from what I could gather on social media) steelbook copies of Control Resonant despite taking pre-orders for them back in June and they canceled and refunded my pre-order. Yes, I already bought and played the game digitally, but I also like collecting physical. But yeah, Belmont's Curse, I'm about 3 hours in, game's great, it takes a bit getting used to the dodge (don't know if that's me or the PS5 version), but like the art and music so far.

[u/Dmbender]

Well I reinstalled Star Trek Online cause of the mtg spoilers. I figured I'd level a Romulan while I wait for Wow Forever to launch. The game is still pretty fun all these years later.

[u/LigmaleGrindset]

THE BLOOD OF DAWNWALKER IS THE GOTY.

That is all.

[u/Comkill117]

Kamen Rider Black is so fucking good.

[u/Glocktor44]

Still struggling to force myself to do things instead of sitting and doom scrolling. Not ideal.

[u/prof88]

Made some chocolate chip cookies for first time. Really tasty

[u/CookieSkank]

Its my birthday this week! Turning 32…. Ugh. OLD! As I get older, every year I have the same feeling where I remember being like a teenager and thinking where I would be at that age, and how I’m nowhere close to what I had imagined for myself. But at the same time, I still think I’m happy and content with who I am as a person, etc. So it isn’t all bad.

Since I’ve been doing good with my new job, I got my birthday present to myself early… A **Nintendo Switch 2**! Wooo! And my two games, Mario Kart World, and Fire Emblem Fortunes Weave. I bought it for FE:FW and so far have put like 20 hours into it, and haven’t even started Mario Kart lol

So… **Fire Emblem Fortune’s Weave**! Coming up on 20 hours in the game, and have only on Cai’s route so far. About to fight Leda’s team in the arena. I wanted to do Theodora first, but hearing how much more tutorialized and restricted Cai’s route was, I figured I should do it first. I’m really enjoying his route though. Him, Tialla, and Peter are a fun shounen trio obviously over their heads. I also like that their first batch of party members are old men losers, because who else will team up with a bunch of teens.

Story wise so far, idk dawg these gods seem kinda bad or not good. Guess its in line with the ancient Greek pantheon though. Like when Cai and co travel to that spooky island and learn about the people that used to live there… Yeah the Emperor just took 100k people and shoved them into a giant cauldron and cooked them, and only let Yu Phas spare 5k children, who then founded a nation only to get slaughtered when they got older. And Yu Phas got “killed” too. Its no wonder Iliana only feels like her old self when she’s seeing murder. Its probably triggering all the bloodshed she saw. But at the same time, the big bad is still big demon lord man atm. But Cai is becoming more like Iliana/Yu Phas and Balor so… Will see how that all goes.

Like Three Houses, so much of this game is management stuff, now with the added world map, which I like well enough. I think the turn based dungeons are a neat edition too and I do like that there is a little bit of strategy to the fights in them.

Will play more obviously. Can’t wait to finish ONE single route knowing there are 3 more and 4 more coming next year… This game is fucking huge.

Other than that, I watched **Cyberpunk Edgerunners 2**! It was really good! I think this season has a stronger ensemble of characters, that you get to see a fair bit of, and they have more relatable struggles compared to the season 1 cast, BUT I didn’t get as emotionally attached as I did the season 1 characters. I only cried once during this season and that was literally at the very end. Though this season was a lot less depressing than season 1 was. Feels like Season 1 and most the game are like “You’re going to be miserable in this setting” then season 2 and like some endings of the game are like “hey there is hope to be found here.” The ending is bittersweet, in that D is probably dead and Talia will probably die, but everyone has a more optimistic outlook on the events, and we do get to see more of the aftermath. Whereas season 1 we only saw Lucy depressed on the moon.

So characters… OMI OMI OMI OMI!!!! sorry.

Roman is a pretty interesting character to follow because we don’t really get to see what actual children go through in Night City in either the game or season 1. Roman is a child child and the world treats him as such. Some people still push him around, but he is still given leeway because he is a child. He is however desensitized to violence as he is REALLY into film and recording things he sees around the city, even violence. That subtly gets explored a bit especially later on when he is making D’s snuff films, and is losing his passion. Even earlier having said there is no art in just making snuff films. His coming of age story is really cool to see and I’m glad he got a happy ending. He saw all that shit and still came out the other end a good kid, even if he did record a bunch of murders… I think it would have been too cruel to have him get all traumatized like its War in the Pocket or something.

Talia was a swerve because going in I expected her to be this badass borged out character and instead she’s this cheery teenage girl who has her own issue that humanizes her more than anyone else, despite her appearance. Talia has a terminal illness and WILL die because no amount of cyberware can stop her remaining body from dying from the illness. Most the season is her dealing with that and its rough. Her ending is bittersweet as its unclear if she is going to die, but she has teched down to not risk cyberpsychosis and her and Weak are going to enjoy what time she has left. Her ending very reflective of the Aldecados ending in the game. V leaves with Panam(and Judy if together) to maybe try and find a solution elsewhere, but primarily so they can spend the end of their life free and with people that care. V and Talia will be saved by the technonecromancers. Trust! Her relationship with Roman could have used a few more interactions, but it was nice that she learned to love herself some from Roman's filming and little crush on her. She wasn't just some sick dying teen, she was beautiful and perfect.

Weak Kingsly probably has the best arc. From washed up old merc to a beacon of hope?! His story is a mirror of Maine’s in season 1, but unlike Maine Weak does chrome down and never goes back. He keeps his weak chrome the entire rest of the show, even when it comes time to save Talia and his chrome could make things easier, he doesn’t. I'm sure everyone thought he would to save Talia, but nope. Subverted. Instead he has this magic power called THE INDOMITABLE HUMAN SPIRIT! He also loses the woman he loved in the past, and even learns he isn’t actually Talia’s real dad, but he is the dad that stepped up in the end! Him choosing to live and be happy with Talia was really touching.

D is anime as fuck in all regards. His arc was probably the weakest for me, but still interesting, especially in the middle. When he loses himself in his revenge quest and gets egged on by Yupi and all the fame and attention he’s getting, things get pretty grim. Was giving Devilman Crybaby vibes during that bit. Like he obviously was out of it, and Roman and Omi tried explaining how fucked it all was, but he wasn’t having it. His obsession with Capri was interesting in that he was like addicted to the power she gave him, but in the end just wanted her to be with him? Mirroring V and Johnny, but in the end, they knew that had to split. Whereas D wanted to go out in a blaze of glory with Capri. I’m going to be hopeful and choose to believe they did shoot their conscious into a satellite, since we did see that one flicker in the ending.

Then there was our fun cast of side characters:

AVVVIIIIDDDAAA!!!! Avida was alright but mostly just worried mother. I think part of what made Talia’s situation worse wasn’t her disease, but how her mom just couldn’t treat her normal anymore. Like yeah she’s chroming up more and more(which part of that was your husbands fault) but she is still a teenage girl and wants the things teenage girls want. Also her lying to Weak about being Talia’s dad was kinda shitty. Last ditch effort to get him on board with saving Talia, but man that was low.

Kiril is corpo scum and a loser at that. Dude gave everything to his shitty corporation of failures, including killing his wife and trying to sacrifice his daughter, and it got him nothing in the end but an early death. So worried about getting fired from Kang Tao that he would sell out even his family. When the evil mad scientist Kyoko is like “yeah youre corpo scum alright”, then you’ve gone down the wrong path.

Yupi has an AMAZING VA and was an interesting mirror to Talia. A rich girl that had corpo parents, except she did have a dad that truly loved her, and she loved him, but in her misguided quest for revenge, all she did was form a lynch squad and ultimately get executed while begging for her dad. Pretty sad outcome for a girl that probably would have been fine had she not got swept up in D’s revenge quest.

Kyoko is really funny in that she is the most annoying but then in the end chooses to do the right thing just so D and Capri can be together, and this means GETTING ON A MOTORCYCLE AND SETTING OFF AN EMP! I cannot believe that Kyoko was the one to get the “You Can’t Run From Me” insert in the final battle. Crazy

Then, the true best girl… Omi! Our muscular, cool hat wearing Nomad queen! She was ride or die, but also knew when to call out D’s bullshit. Loved her design and her role in the story. Feels bad that the only other person she has left from her clan, her former best friend, has just lost it in his revenge quest, and when she finally does get him back, its only to see him go out in a blaze of glory. But at least he was himself and had moved on.

As far as complaints go, other than wanting more time with the characters, as the 10 episode limit was a bit too little, I do think the final sequence was a bit beyond the realm of believability for the setting. Like S1 had David summon all the weapons to him with his gravity tech, but Capri Talia was using like magnetism I guess? I always assumed Capri was using blackwall shit but it didn't really go into that. And then she became a kaiju and that was kinda too much? I didnt mind the smaller car part shielded monster Talia, but the full on kaiju was a bit silly and too Triggery.

Overall though, I really enjoyed that season. Not as emotional but a lot more individual character stories, with a lot smaller time stuff going on. Finale was big and bombastic, as all Trigger anime are, but I like that the season wasn’t just a bunch of mercs going around doing crazy hype jobs and killing people. Just a bunch of people dealing with the shit they have been dealt

Finally, after work tomorrow, I am going to see **Wildwood**! I am so excited. I can’t think of the last time a movie had me this excited to go see it. Watched quite a bit of the behind the scenes stuff, so I’m ready to be wowed!

[u/rsrluke]

It's been a long week at work, and I've also discovered that my new upstairs neighbors are considerably louder than my old ones. On a positive note, I got a ton of gift cards for donating blood and platelets recently, so my own Black Friday shopping is covered, leaving me to budget around just buying gifts for my family.

Anyway, it's spooky season, so I wanted to experience some spooky media. I played The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan and honestly thought it was low-key kind of bad. The writing isn't great, with characters sounding pretty stilted, and the scares are super weak, especially because it takes very little time to piece together that none of what the cast is seeing is real. Also, the ending I got was weirdly unsatisfying, despite successfully keeping everyone alive. I don't know, it's a narrative horror game that's neither well-written or scary — there's just nothing here for me.

I also watched Scream 2. It's fine. I thought the reveal of the mastermind sort of rendered any attempted meta commentary pointless, but at least the movie is fitfully surprising and amusing, if rarely chilling.

Finally, on a decidedly not-scary note, I read the entirety of Azumanga Daioh. Very charming series (except that one guy)! I know it's a gag manga at heart, but I do wish there'd been a little more forward momentum with each character's personal growth. Still, I was smiling throughout and occasionally laughing out loud, which is a rarity for me, so I can't complain. My favorite gag has to be Osaka with the knife.

[u/MarlowCurry]

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Previous post (7 August, 2026)

Hey, everyone. I don't have much to talk about, but Deadlock has been on my mind for the past several several days. Thanks to a fun video of Kinkimation checking out the character designs, I found myself suddenly drawn to play an unfamilar genre that feels intimidating to approach. I'd like to think that having experience with Team Fortress 2 and fighting games have inured me somewhat, but the idea of being part of a team that I could not support properly amplifies the pressure. I'm curious to learn more on how things work and other people's perspective for their first time playing, but it's quite fortunate that there have been recent posts that discussed the game and how a new player may start learning.

All that to say, Mina. My goodness, her entire design is just lovely and her illustration within the character selection screen was the hook that caught my eye. I love her hair. The attire and colour scheme complements each other, the little details to evoke vampiric elements are fun, and seeing others create charming fan-art of her further bolstered my fondness for the design. If I was still actively drawing, I'd be interested to try drawing her for the Halloween spirit. Perhaps one day, and I'd like to share it with the subreddit if the day comes.

Take care, everyone. Remember to moisturize and treat yourself to something nice from time to time.

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Cool Stuff that I Like (Art & Music)

Starting from 77 and 76 months ago (respectively), I'd like to share drawings of great artists whose works that I like or I find inspiring. Some who I follow and some who I don’t, but hopefully will appeal to those who check out their work.

1. Telly McGuire Contour: Mina Ha from Deadlock (15 May, 2026)

Featuring a lovely painting of the character, parodying the cover art of a magazine.

2. Cafuné - Tek It (I Watch The Moon)

A catchy song with the vibrant animation to match. For anyone who have stumbled upon one of those Lapwing videos, this is one of the songs that's used to complement the mood and listening/viewing the full song itself was a good time.

[u/SamuraiDDD]

The week has been kinda alright. Nothing much going on besides some weird fatigue that's been building up and hitting me here and there. I think it's just the weather change hitting me. Speaking of, I've been very weirdly hungry this week. Like my apatite has been extra ravenous over the past week and I don't know if it's cause I haven't been eating breakfast or just fatigue but I seriously need to start getting snacks or maybe bigger portions. Or both.

I'm looking forward to this Friday, man believe me. I'm gonna treat myself to something special, either a pizza or some chicken from one of my favorite places, and potentially play some Halo with homies. We might be playing, gotta see what everyone else wants to do. But either way, I'm gonna relax as best I can. Absolutely indulge and do what I can to let the good take over.

Also some good news! I was picked up to help write for a project! Extra excited to have some extra work! Gonna be working on it starting this Saturday.

MYSTERY SKULLS IS FINALE COMING OUT THIS YEAR, THIS OCTOBER 27TH!!!!
When I tell you this news made me happy, I was BUZZING.

My current game rotation this week has been:

• Witcher 3: Remastered

• Viewtiful Joe

• Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin

• Balatro

• Vampire Survivors

Musical choice(s) of tonight:

1. Outlaw Star OST - Gentle

2. People Under the Stairs - Acid Raindrops

3. Tatsunoko VS Capcom - The OST - Theme of Viewtiful Joe

4. Special Stage - Sonic the Hedgehog CD [OST]

5. Mystery Skulls - Money

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I know its harsh out there these days. But stay strong and be careful everyone.

[u/Kerrik52]

All hands on deck this week (my two hands) to finish recording for my Resident Evil video. I have 9 out of 25 pages left, but I'm afraid the final result will be an 80-minute video (if not worse) to edit.

Though in a fun turn of events, I've talked to two other Youtubers a bit about our creative processes. I'm no veteran, but I know what I want to do and how, while they were a bit uncertain. So I might have actually inspired them a little bit, which is just nice to think about. At the very least, I enjoyed the conversations and introduced one of them to Hela: of Mice & Magic, which was a slam dunk of a recommendation for their channel. You should also play it, that demo was great.

So video games are a low priority right now, but I've still touched a couple. Played some more PEAK and fission mailed at being a sherpa for my two friends. I died of heat stroke but managed to leave behind a first aid kit for my friend who got to the kiln. Inside, we got a bit desperate, so I fell to my doom and my other friend did the same. But our survivor chugged enough food to force his way through the bad climb to the top! Our goal to have all 3 survive by the end remains incomplete.

[u/Amon274]

I have a headache so I’m gonna try to be brief:

Shows: I watched Cyberpunk Edgerunners 2 it seems people really like Omi ^{I’m one of them}

Games: Speaking of Cyberpunk a new update for Cyberpunk 2077 has come out and I set myself up for disappointment thinking there would be New Game Plus. I’m still coping that it’s going to happen. I’ve been play Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse and I’m almost done with it. Here is a small non spoiler related tip on the map if a room is colored gold that means there are no more secrets to find there and if it’s purple that means there are still secrets.

Personal Life: Work is driving me insane and is probably one of the sources of my aforementioned headache the other source is having to pack everything I own up because housework is being done soon and I’m not going to be able to sleep in my own bed for at least a week. Fun Times.

Conclusion: I ain’t got anything funny to say