Use the Falchion

Finished Pokemon Sword a little past midnight! TL;DR - I think this was a good game, but not a great one. There are a lot of things to like in this new generation: Bede was almost a return to form in the "jerk rival" category, the new pokemon designs are really fun and innovative at times, GALARIAN DARAMUTA, the new gym leaders (NESSA) and stadium style matches are really fun (although I'm not too fond of the puzzles beforehand and the giant stadium always filling up doesn't fit the smaller cities such as Opal's). I enjoyed the first few towns and their rustic feels and how the camera would sweep over the hills (...until I found that the camera only works in one direction, and walking backwards through this was a PAIN). Marnie and that redheaded professor adjutant were fun too! And Piers. I can't forget Piers. Hop isn't a good rival, but he does gain some characterization in the post-game, and that counts for something. I genuinely liked the final tournament before battling the champion. You get to fight old gym leaders with their "true" teams and it's super fun. The Wild Area was actually pretty fun, and Dynamax Raids provided interesting ways to acquire new items. But unfortunately, that's about it. Sword and Shield's story is terribly uninspired, while the post-game can be knocked out in an hour or so and doesn't really solve or add anything of note. The villains are non-existent with the most offending villains coming in the post-game (case and point, at one point an ally is betrayed by an assistant...who we know for all of three minutes and NEVER EVEN GETS NAMED. The ally takes it very personally...and then is over it in the next scene. Are we supposed to feel shocked? Betrayed? Sad? No emotion can convey this well because we don't know anything about the person who betrayed us, not even their name). Team Yell can't even be called villains or antagonists. They're just annoying fans from a city that are more obnoxious than evil. Even Team Skull was more threatening! The starters become way too...human...in their final forms and it's unsettling. Some of the best designs were when starters were animals or monsters, go back to that Game Freak! And the legendaries wee so bland and forgetful! WOLVES ARE MY FAVORITE ANIMALS AND EVEN THEN THE LEGENDARIES WERE BLAND AND FORGETFUL. The routes were VERY straightforward and very, VERY short, making the journey to each new city about a five or ten minute walk, depending on how many trainers are in your way. And once you unlock the train system to travel - not that you need it because you can call air taxis to pick you up from anywhere to take you to just about every other place you've visited - travel becomes even easier. I guess that's the biggest problem with this game - everything is too convenient. In earlier games, getting home after a certain point became inconvenient if not downright impossible. Routes would be blocked off by puzzles you couldn't do at the moment. It really pushed you into that "I'm on an adventure" mindset. Here, you can go home at nearly any point you want. And due to how straightforward this game is and how short the routes are, this game feels more like a fun summer vacation trip/adventure than a life-changing journey to be the best of all time. Overall this game was a Dynamaxed step-down from Sun and Moon (NOT Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, which I think was a step in the wrong direction narratively, but I understand why it was made). And when you have other big, mainstream Nintendo franchises coming to the Switch with their arms swinging (Super Mario Odyssey,The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wilds, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, etc) it's more than a little saddening to feel like Pokemon would play it safe. My ranking of Pokemon Generations: Gen 2 (It did everything a sequel should have done) Gen 5, Gen 3, Gen 7 (Fun, iconic regions, varied Pokemon selection, and good stories) Gen 1 & Gen 4 (Game changing but ultimately too slow and bland of regions for me to love) Gen 6 (Good region, decent Pokemon, cool new type (YMMV), enjoyable post-game story) Gen 8 (Decent region, good Pokemon, bad story, bland gameplay) Next I'll probably play some Fire Emblem (I have unfinished playthroughs in Fates and Three Houses, but I also want to romance some people in Awakening, so we'll see what happens) before I hop back on my PS4 and try out Uncharted. Then again, my video game plans never actually follow a schedule.

...ergo it might not be true love...? I also don't think it was a matter of giving up on each other "too easily," as you say it. Tarah was faced with a choice between a job that fit her skill-set and would help her father later on, and a boyfriend who couldn't emotionally be there for her (for a good reason, but the point remains regardless). Kaladin wouldn't leave his post and Tarah knew that. Kaladin was stuck, but Tarah didn't have to be, so she left. Now will Tarah enter the story again and will they rekindle their romance? Possibly. Or maybe Tarah is will be "the one who got away" for Kaladin and once again he'll have to learn how to live for the living and those that are present? I can't say. Personally, I think Kaladin needs someone he isn't actively protecting for a significant other. If he has to protect them, they become his responsibility and then it becomes like a job to our favorite Windrunner (see his relationships with Rock, Sigzil, and Teft compared to how he describes his relationship with Moash and now Adolin). A Radiant would do nicely, since they would hold the same semi-immortal powers, preferably someone who isn't afraid to stand up to Kaladin and one who Kaladin isn't afraid to stand up to either.

There are things I want to happen in this book, and I've talked about theories I have for this book, but there is nothing I really expect from it. Audience expectations are rarely met, and creating them usually leads to disappointment. Besides, I haven't been as on board with some of Sanderson's latest releases (Starsight was good, but not as good as Skyward; and the last Legion novella took the series in a direction I personally didn't like), so I'm staying wary for now.

And I have to disagree. I think motives must always be taken into account in order to properly dole out justice and whatnot. It's because of these motives as a hero or villain that the society of the story - that our own morals, views, and philosophies - can be challenged and ultimately sharpened (ideally with both determination and compassion). Moash's original anger was justified, and while Kaladin's actions may not have been right for society, they were right for him. And in turn, Elhokar learned to become a better leader for the time he was allowed to. Killmonger was created by the sins of T'Challa's father. He was abandoned due to Wakanda's strict non-interference policy. If Killmonger hadn't challenged T'Challa, Wakanda wouldn't have opened its borders and started to help the world become a better place by the end. Thanos' goal wasn't for the characters in the world, or at least not in the way he intended. It was for us, reminding us that overpopulation IS a real concern we will have to face, and how we face that and the loss of resources will shape what our world becomes...and clearly genocide is not the answer. Speaking of Thanos... I always interpreted Thanos' destroying half the universe as 1) the ramblings of a narcissistic, futurist (like how Tony, once he got the idea of a "suit of armor around the world" couldn't stop himself from trying to make it); Thanos doesn't want to save the day and go home. He wants to save the day, be praised and thanked, and THEN go home. When he doesn't get the recognition and realizes no one is actually grateful, he decides to start over from scratch. And 2) I honestly think Thanos DID think about doubling the resources. In his mind, even if he doubled the resources, they'd still run out. It's stalling the inevitable (or stalling him, as he is fond of conflating himself was inevitability?), and nothing would change. Heck, if this pandemic has reminded us of anything, it should be that society rarely changes unless something big and desperate pushes it to. So instead of doubling it, Thanos halves the universe and says "this is a lesson, think better about your resource use now." Sort of like like "give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime." The problem was (...overlooking the mass genocide and murder part for a moment) that he was trying to teach a lesson that nobody else even knew was being taught. The only ones that did were those who faced him, and they rightfully called him out on the insanity of his plan. I'm not trying to justify his plan by any means, but I don't think the answer is also as simple as "double the resources." That was part of the point though, Kylo was an Anti-Vader. He wasn't a master of the Dark Side, nor did he ever claim to be. He was the leader of the Knights or Ren. Admittedly, the reason he went to the Dark Side was very weak and not fully fleshed out (much like the world surrounding the Sequel Trilogy as a whole), but I found his lack of emotional control fascinating. He threw tantrums, destroyed property (but rarely anyone on his side unlike his grandfather), and was more powerful than any other canon Force User we'd seen up to that point. And then he did the unthinkable and killed the Emperor stand-in, accomplishing what his grandfather couldn't. Dark Side doesn't mean "in control all the time," nor should villains be limited to that. The range we get in our villains is what makes them fun. I will also contest that it wasn't when Kylo took off the mask that was when he lost his threatening nature, it was the fact that Kylo had never won a battle against his enemies. Three times he fought Rey, and all three times he lost. It stopped being interesting after the second fight, because she had so thoroughly beaten him by that point.

Yeah Ashe was a crit machine on my playthrough too. Made me sad when he wasn't as awesome of a crit machine in the real game, but he makes up for it in other ways. Edelgard has blocked out nearly all of her childhood memories; Dimitri on the other hand remembers all of his, even the ones he'd rather forget. Glad Constance was your star of the new characters! I ended up using Hapi the most, and Constance after that. Yuri helped a lot with healing and positioning, but Balthus fell off for me. He was good, but he wasn't that good. Thankfully in the main storyline he's actually not too bad!

Yeah Killmonger's interesting because on one hand, though, he's absolutely right when he says Wakanda has the power to help out minorities around the world, and their reluctance to do so makes them just as guilty; on the other hand, he's wrong because conquering people isn't the ONLY way to help the world. And he's not the only person in the movie to make that point, nor is he the first. But at the end of the day Killmonger was a hurt little boy turned into a cruel man, screaming at the world for all of the injustices it brought him, and used that pain as an excuse to deal out even more pain. There's also the fact that I mean...far right extremist groups that idolize past regimes still exist today (and the fact that RJ turned them into a laughing stock because HE doesn't feel threatened by them annoyed me). And that's why I liked him in TFA and respect his arc in TLJ. I wanted to see what Skywalker, unmarred by lost limbs and in control of an empire could do. Alas... I have a feeling that Gavilar may end up being that sort of person, in a strange sort of way.

Me: Man, I'm so burnt out, but I really need to finish this Golden Deer playthrough so I can use the supports, renown, and maxed out statues in my next playthrough. My Brain: Hey should give up on your Golden Deer playthrough and start another Bylass Blue Lions playthrough ASAP.

A couple of reasons. But before that, we must understand that any villain may be relatable to one person but not another. For example, I find Killmonger in Black Panther VERY relatable and understandable (which is probably a better term to use than relatable), but I can neither comprehend why people like or sympathize with Kylo Ren and Loki to the degree that they do, nor can I understand the characters themselves in relation to their actions, and as such they're some of my most hated villains of all time. But why do I like relatable villains...? Because in many cases they are proactive. The problem with many heroes/protagonists is that they are reactionary or at least non-revolutionary. They either like the status quo or have morals that won't let them change the status quo too much. In those cases, the villains end up being those who dislike the status quo due to some deficit or flaw that has personally hurt them. That pain can be relatable to many people. Thus, a villain becomes right in intentions and wrong in methods, and it's up to the hero to fuse the two together in order to create a better society. Simply put, relatable villains can help push society to a healthier state in storytelling, or at least facilitate healthy character development.* Note that this is not ALWAYS the case, but in many stories, the side of "good" is the law, no matter how corrupt it is. In One Piece, our heroes are seen as villains by the world because they break the law and are pirates, despite doing far more good than evil. In Mistborn, Kelsier and his crew are revolutionaries and while we see them as good, they do destroy a lot and they do bring about the end of the world. Wax even notes that he'd take Kelsier and his crew down had he lived in the time of the Final Empire, or had they lived in his era. Dominic Toreto's crew in The Fast and the Furious is always in need or pardons for something, no matter how many times they save the world or are let free. But just because the side of "good" is the law, doesn't mean that morality is on that same side. Another reason is that relatable villains can be complex, reflecting the more nuanced world we live in. At a certain age, people want to hear about good and evil less and less, because the world we live in doesn't entirely reflect that. Corruption and power abuse as stand-ins for evil work, sure. But saying "X is evil because he/she/it is evil," stops being helpful at a certain point. The Fire Lord is evil because he's a power-hungry, manipulative, narcissistic, abusive man who needs to be stopped before the whole work is destroyed or conquered, and exploring those reasons opens up the door for more nuanced storytelling. Now in terms of Moash, while I don't find him relatable, I do find him understandable to a degree. People he loved died due to Elhokar's incompetent and bigoted leadership. We saw time and time again how terrible of a king Elhokar was, and we knew that Moash's dislike with the king was justified. But we also knew that Moash wouldn't have fixed things, not really; and Moash didn't see how Elhokar had changed in the end (...and even if he had, Moash wouldn't have cared). But where Moash loses all relatability is at the end of the book, killing a king because he was told to. Moash has killed two kings, and yet is still a slave to new masters, despite the weapon he holds. As such, Moash serves as a nice foil to Kaladin (in terms of responsibility, experience, and power-set) and Dalinar (in terms of responsibility and the fact that Dalinar holds no weapons yet is the master of his own fate and leader of the Radiants, while Moash has some of the most powerful weapons on Roshar and is still a slave/servant to new masters). *Note that Kylo Ren and Loki fail to do this, and as such, their relatability comes off as an excuse or skin-deep justification for their baser desires (revenge, lust, and power).

I both love and hate this so much. I would KILL to see Vin and Elend again, although I don't think they'd currently like how they fit into mythology and society. And given the technology upgrade may come with quite the learning curve. That being said, I could see a plot for it. Harmony figures out how to bring back one from the Spiritual Realm, something Hoid may have been trying to do since Dragonsteel. As such Hoid figures that he needs to gain Harmony's power either by splintering the shard and keeping the vessel alive, or becoming a new host for the shard and using his extreme amount of Investiture to anchor him against the corruption of the Intent. Kelsier doesn't want this to happen to Harmony and doesn't want Hoid to win, so he fights Hoid in an epic, space-opera trilogy. ...yeah, it's a little weird and would never happen, but that's how I could see it going! My current wildest theory is one potentially backed by a Death Rattle or two and combined with a less crazy theory I have. TL;DR - Odium - or Rayse rather - will lose, but will enact two final things before his downfall. First is that he will erase the Highstorms and block all of Honor's Investiture from entering Roshar through conventional means. Instead there will be storms neverending, but they don't bring any light. This is the Night of Sorrows. Secondly Odium will agree to the Contest of Champions, and his Champion will be Adolin and Shallan's child. To start with the less crazy theory, I have previously posited that the Everstorm, the True Desolation, and the Night of Sorrows are three separate events. The True Desolation began when Taln broke, the Everstorm was created to keep the True Desolation from ending, and the Night of Sorrows will be Odium's last trump card where he destroys the Highstorms in Book 5, creating a permanent period of Weeping; after all, do we not weep in our sorrows? “ I'm not sure this one has too much to do with that theory, but I feel like it could fit in there somewhere. Like Szeth realizing that in Book 5 Shinovar is lost, and despite his cleansing he cannot save it. The water surging is because he knows they have failed, and he knows what comes next. The child crying is Szeth hearing a sort of cognitive shadow of himself. Destroying that source of Investiture will stop any new Radiants from appearing, and it will be up to Lift and Renarin in book six to figure out how to bring back the storms. (Although I do have an adjacent theory about how this can be fixed earlier, and how Adolin is leading that front.) Anyways, as Odium's last gambit, he agrees to the Contest of Champions, and chooses his Champion, Shallan and Adolin's child. This will happen in Book 4 as Shallan attempts to bond with Sja-Anat, but will be revealed in Book 5. This death rattle points us to the child that may be our heroes' downfall. Many have guessed Oroden, but he is already a year old I believe, and by the time Rhythm of War and Book 5 come around, while he may still breast-feed I'd hardly call him suckling. No, this is a newborn and one prominent enough that we will know what happens when he or she is born. Thus, Sanderson comes to ask the iconic question of killing Hitler as a child or before he committed any atrocities, would it be moral to do so? But even in asking the question, Sanderson has already given us the answer. Life Before Death. "So the night will reign," eh? Sounds a lot like the Night of Sorrows. And "the choice of honor is life," seems to me like our heroes have a shot at victory, but they also know that in doing so this one act they will undermine everything they have stood for. This action would break them, much like how the revelations of humanity's origin and the actions against the Parshendi broke the previous group of Radiants. And to set right was once wrong, the Radiants will let the child live and hold out to fight another day (also correcting the mistake the Heralds make at the beginning of the book). There is also the back cover of The Way of Kings, written by in-world creatures. Many people thought that may have been Szeth. Others later thought it might have been Dalinar. Still some think it maybe Kaladin. But have we ever considered Shallan, not because of her, but through her? So there it is, Shallan is the harbinger of doom and the bearer of Odium's champion. This will spell an end to Roshar as we know it, but not THE end. IS THIS WILD ENOUGH FOR YOU GOOBERS!?

Brian Michael Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man run is really worth checking out, as is the original Young Avengers run. The X-Men run with Mike Carey with art by Chris Bachalo is phenomenal (Renegades, Supernova, Messiah Complex) although I'm far less familiar with anything after that. Bachalo also did the art on my favorite Spider-Man two-shot. That's sort of the problem with Marvel, at least it has been for me in the past 7-8 years or so. I can buy a Marvel comic or series and outside of a few exceptions (Miles Morales: Spider-Man, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Ms. Marvel), I won't remember anything about it past a few months. DC on the other hand has some great standouts that blaze in my mind for years to come, and despite their age, have already become iconic pars of the DC mythos (Batman's Court of Owls, Damian Wayne to a degree, Aquaman's new styling, etc.). Again, Marvel has had that too, with Kamala Khan and Miles Morales and other, younger heroes as well, but I don't see Marvel successfully breaking new ground as much as DC has (in non-MCU related material). Agents of Shield is a weird thing. I can't recommend the first 75% of Season One, since they were really constrained by the reveal in Winter Soldier. And my usual policy is that if I can't recommend it within the first three episodes, I can't recommend it at all. However, there's always an exception to the rule, and AoS is that exception. During the last 25% of the first season, the show really flourishes. Season 2 is easily the best Season 2 for a superhero show I've ever seen (barely edging out Arrow Season 2). Season 3 is good, but Season's 4 & 5 (I think that's where I stopped) are phenomenal. This show is far from perfect, and goes it off into weird places due to not fully existing in canon because of the movie/tv split, but it's all great fun. Daredevil Season One is one of the best superhero shows I've ever watched, and I've watched a LOT. Season Two is just as good for the first half and then falls off the wagon some. I haven't seen Season Three yet, but from what I've heard it's a return to form. Watch this, watch the first half of Luke Cage (it goes downhill after that), and skip the rest of the Defenders shows (Jessica Jones isn't bad, but it's so apathy-inducing you're drained by the time its over; Iron Fist improves as the show goes along, but when you start from the bottom of the barrel you can only go up. Watch Arrow instead if you want to see a blond, rich playboy come back from a mystical land with martial arts powers and bring justice to his streets. The cast is more likable there and the main actor does a better job...and his own stunts; Defenders isn't bad per-se, it's just not that good. The villains aren't engaging at a time in the MCU universe where engaging villains were needed, they wasted perfectly good actors, and the team up aspect of the show did mean much given we'd already had two Avengers movies, dozens of smaller cameos, shows that already involved ensemble casts, and DC's CW shows' annual crossovers for the past 3-4 years - the novelty wasn't novel anymore. And the villain's motive made no sense). Punisher Season One was also pretty dope though.

I don't have any sort of process of elimination like y'all but my theory is: Group 1: Venli (it's "her" book), Navani (the other main character if our speculation is to be believed), Kaladin (because of course it's Kaladin) will be the Big 3. The smaller viewpoint will be Rlain, and the one POV will be Jasnah. What's happening? A rescue/counter-mission is my guess. Team Odium is doing something and in order to stop it, we need a small but powerful strike team. Venli wants insurance for her people, and so Dalinar must send someone he trusts, but who isn't a Radiant. Navani, curious, offers to go. Kaladin goes to protect her and pick up his own spy and some stragglers along the way. Jasnah is there because of the mission falls sideways she can get them out (or rather, she doesn't trust Kaladin to do his job well and is there to make sure her mother is safe...and this may be her last semi-peaceful option before she decides the genocide route. Kaladin will try to convince her away from that), and if it's a diplomatic meeting, she can represent Alethkar. Group 2: Adolin and Shallan. What's happening? Well, the lovely couple decides they need a break from their respective families (and Shallan has a mission she needs to complete) so they go on a vacation. And by vacation I mean a high-risk mission to capture one of the Unmade and potentially convert her to Team Good Guys. Group 3: Dalinar and the either the Herdazian general or Szeth. What's happening? Well, we see the front lines and beyond with Group 1, we have a dangers Spec-Ops mission with Group 2, so now we see the war room with Group 3. Interlude Novella Character: I'd either say the Herdazian general if he's not a part of Group 3, Vyre chasing down the other Heralds (or a Herald running from Vyre), or Lirin commenting on what the war has done. Rlain is another option, but I'd rather him be a main character.

Same to both! I loved Order of the Phoenix because of the secret classes and independence and companionship the students gained. It felt like they finally wizened up to the world around them (teachers are either helpless or actively working against them, the government is even worse, and Dumbledore is too vague to be relied on in most scenarios (and I LOVE Dumbledore)) and seeing that growth was so much fun. The movie's Luna Lovegood was spot-on too. I also really like the first two books and movies. There's not much special about them, but both convey that sense of youthful magical wonder and awe to me without getting too dark and gritty. Everything is new and exciting and fun. Harry Potter World and Universal does a great job of capturing the atmosphere too. Finally, The Deathly Hallows will also have a special place in my heart because it was the first Harry Potter book I had to wait for its release. I had a friend who I was talking to about its release at the time, and waiting for each other to get the book and read it as fast as possible was amazing. Death Hallows Part 2 was also one of the first midnight premiers I ever went to. A friend had an extra ticket...so she invited one of my other friends and HE said he wouldn't go without me (or something to that effect), so we ended up buying a ticket the day of and waited in-line for the first friend and all of her friends to appear. Turns out it was a double feature with Part 1, and it was SO MUCH FUN...until half of the theater cried at a certain death. But other than that it was so much fun!

Same here, but it's also not a fair comparison yet. Avatar had 61 episodes and is a complete series. The Dragon Prince has 27 currently and isn't even halfway done. The characters are going through different arcs (Aang is present in all of the main characters: his innocence is in Ezran, his powers are in Callum, and his arc is reversed in Rayla (instead of wondering how NOT to kill the Fire Lord, Rayla wonders if she can ever kill to become an assassin)), but there are similarities (Callum and Sokka have love interests who are better than them at what they feel they're good at (magic and fighting respectively), have a love interest associated with the moon, and know of boomerangs). The Dragon Prince is great and is well on its way to being phenomenal, but it will take a lot of time to see if it can live up to Avatar.

Endgame is great. Not the best MCU film IMO, nor is it in the top 5 (maybe top 7), but it's easily one of the best franchise finales we've seen. In terms of other Marvel stuff...I still need to watch Daredevil Season 3 and catch up on Agents of Shield. I haven't read a Marvel comic in nearly a year...the last one I read was Miles Morales Spider-Man run last June...I honestly think that DC has better comics as a whole right now. But when everyone pays attention to the movies and not much else, it doesn't really matter.

WOOOOOOOT!! That joke hits too close to home lol...those same-turn reinforcements...

They went all out with the animation for these final episodes. I love how the clones look like a mix between their updated form from the show and the CGI weirdness from the ROTS. Somehow Filoni makes it work, and work wonderfully! I was a little sad with how cool and distant Kenobi and Ahsoka's relationship was, but they're different people; and it's not like the care isn't there, they just have vastly different priorities and viewpoints.

This is AMAZING! Even better than expected if all goes according to plan. That hardcover WoK Prime is going to be SO DOPE!

It was mentioned on Reddit (don't remember if it was Brandon or Peter who said it) that they won't be releasing the cover super early this time around Whelan is super busy and may still be working on it.

What if Sanderson throws us all for a loop and it's Azure? ...yeah I'm leaning more towards Shallan and now Navani, but you never know!

You're not alone! I try not to read the pre-release chapters because that means there's less of the book to read on release day, and I want it ALL. We can stay strong, Radiant.

I truly get the desire for more Stormlight stuff and the need to find something solid in this ever-changing storm of a time, and while I don't know your personal situation, I'm not sure having Sanderson release anything early other than the chapters snippets he's already released is a good thing at this moment. The book still has a way to go before it's finished, and this isn't a situation where the author has been quiet, evasive, or misleading about their book's progress. We have a release date (November 17), we know what the novella released will be but it needs to be written first, and the actual book comes first before that. Sanderson gives us updates on Reddit (his latest one from last month) and even said that he's "neck-deep in revisions" as recent as last night/this morning. "A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad for ever." Shigeru Miyamoto. This can also be true for books, or any project that has time limits. You say we need to know how to care like Kaladin does, but the answer is in the stories he's already told, not just the new book. We find a way to move forward, move to our next steps because we saw Dalinar do that. We can't wait for our next steps to be in-line with Dalinar's unfortunately, but maybe the path he's walked so far is enough for now. (Also, if you're looking for something on Netflix, I recommend The Dragon Prince if you haven't watched it already).

March 30 I finished Horizon: Zero Dawn. It was so much fun and told such a great, classic story. I honestly can't wait for the sequel and hope it's a PS5 launch title, or at least it comes out by the end of the year (when I'm more likely to actually buy a PS5). March 31 I started Persona 5 Royal, and today I finished it. Overall I have a LOT of feelings on it, but as I watched the credits roll, I realized that my complaints were pretty small compared to the journey I had just undertaken. It felt so good, so right to be with the Phantom Thieves again, changing society and strengthening our own hearts. The new quality of life changes were very welcome (no more wasted nights after palaces and Mementos!), and the new characters of Maruki and Kasumi were very welcome. I still have mixed feelings on Kasumi due to how heavily the game ships her and Joker, and how heavily marketed and promoted she is yet she doesn't join the Phantom Thieves until their final dungeon in the new semester. And I understand why that is, and why she's needed in this game to a degree, but at the same time I can't help but wonder if she would have flourished in Persona 6 (whenever that comes out). On the other side, I think Kasumi is a great character whose backstory, while a tad predictable, is greatly explored and well done. As a combat unit she's a hard and fast hitter and is always a joy to use. Maruki on the other hand fit in the game so well that I'm pretty surprised he wasn't in the original game. His story mixes a lot with Kasumi's, so they sort of reflect off each other, but I also see a game where this isn't the case. As for the final dungeon...well, HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD: So, will I be replaying Persona 5 Royal like I did the original game anytime soon? Honestly, no, probably not. I'd rather go back to the original for shipping purposes (look, I REALLY don't like it when games try to force someone on me when there are options sometimes!), and I like where the story ended off. Besides, I maxed out all but two of the social links, (Hermit and Empress got the short end of the stick, but I got them to ranks 8 and 9 respectively), got to level 90, fused the strongest monster in the game, and have the compendium at above 75%. It's not perfect, but its pretty stinking good. And after a little under 94 hours in 15 days, I think I can take a break. I'll revisit the franchise in Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers whenever that comes out. But for any Sharder looking for a good PS4 game to keep them busy for a while, Persona 5 Royal is perfect for that. Pick it up and you won't regret it. Also as a random note, Makoto may still be my best girl but Haru is working her way up the ranks to almost second place (I'd say she ties there with Ann and Takemi (EDIT: And Hifumi. I can't believe I forgot my girl Hifumi)).

The Original and The Apocalypse Guard are not Cosmere. The Original is a sci-fi story about clones being created to hunt criminals. If they succeed, the clones can then take over the original's life.

Finally started Witcher 3 yesterday. I'm enjoying the graphics and the story (and the side-quests), but the world hasn't taken me by storm yet, to be completely honest. I keep comparing it to Horizon: Zero Dawn in my head, since that's the last open world "fantasy" I played (Fire Emblem isn't open world AT ALL). And every time Yennefer appears or is described, all I can think of is Moiraine from The Wheel of Time (although Moiraine is usually pictured with brown hair according to the artwork I've seen). I don't think I'll ever be fully in love with this game, but I'll happily be proven wrong. This should keep me busy until Persona 5 Royal comes out, and then Persona will take over my life...again...

We got a few good gems sprinkled throughout, but I'm not sure if it's what you're looking for. Sanderson has increased hope that The Apocalypse Guard will work and plans on dedicating some time to it after finishing all the revisions on Stormlight 4; to stay on schedule for said Stormlight book, Sanderson needs to finish Draft 3.0 by this week and move straight into Draft 4.0. The Way of Kings Leatherbound will be about $200 for the base book. Sanderson is very much hoping to NOT have to write all the screenplays for his books. Lastly, the audio-exclusive novella The Original he worked on with Mary Robinette Kowall should come out in the next month or so. Brandon's REALLY excited about it. This stream was pretty Cosmere-light it terms of content by design. But Adolin apparently would prefer onion rings over French fries if given the choice!