Zurvanight

So Koguchi is a musical god

Final Fantasy XIV. It's an mmo sure, but the story is so good I'd equate it to one of Brandon's novels. One of my favorite concepts from the game is the world being shattered into 13 reflections of itself, and the Source (original world) by the Goddess Hydaelyn after she struck Zodiark, the God of Darkness so hard it literally cracked spacetime like an egg. After thousands of years each reflection has developed different cultures and religions and such. You even get to visit some of these worlds in the story making you a Worldhopper basically.

Patch 6.2 trailer and release date of August 23rd. In this patch we brave The Fell Court of Troia and learn more of the fallen World of Darkness, take on Scarmiglione, the Elemental Archfiend of Earth, return to Elpis and discover what Lahabrea is up to in Pandaemonium Abyssos. Then finally relax on the new Island Sanctuary.

Beat the game and I have to say this is my favorite Xenoblade game in terms of story and combat. Also definitely play the first two games. I won't say why but it's definitely worth it if you do. Also since the game was released OST videos are up on YouTube and here's the best battle theme in the game bar none: Also I have a favor to anyone who has found this but does anyone know how to unlock

EDIT: it got removed :') Best battle theme is back and better than ever!

Bumping thread because there's only a week left! And they released the Chain Attack theme which is amazing.

I can't stop listening to this

I found this neat video in my recommendations on YouTube and it brings some interesting things to light, and speculations from the Direct. There are some spoilers for the beginning of the game that were shown in the Direct so don't watch if you don't want any spoilers.

Yeah, there's also P and a few more whose names we don't know. They belong to a group called the Consul. N looks suspiciously like Noah. Same hair and eye color, and his sword looks similar to Noah's. Also notice how some characters have different artstyles? You can tell that Keves characters are drawn in XC1 style, while Agnus characters are drawn in XC2 style. Another interesting thing is Gray's title is Full Metal Jaguar, which was Elma's class in Xenoblade Chronicles X. He even looks like a character from X.

Here's official art for all the new characters that have been introduced. Ethel Queen of Keves Queen of Agnus Cammuravi Juniper Zeon Valdi Vandham Riku and Manana Isurd Ashera Fiona Gray Alexandria D N

Bumping thread because the direct trailer came out a few days ago and I forgot to post it. Trailer introduces the villains and a bit more about the story. One more month!

Stormlight Archive obviously Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny - basic premise is very far into the future a group of astronauts crash land on a hostile alien planet. Using their crashed ships highly advanced tech, they become immortal psychic gods based on the Hindu pantheon and rule over the planet as tyrants. They can reincarnate and change form as they please. After a long time one god who goes playfully as Sam, gets tired of the gods being...well gods. So he acts as Buddha and rises up against them with his comrades. Each chapter takes place thousands of years apart from each other. It's a really good read. Chronicles of Amber - also by Roger Zelazny. Alternate and infinite universes are nothing new in sci-fi and fantasy. But what was the first world that all other worlds stem from? Amber. It follows the Nine Princes of Amber (but mostly Corwin and his son Merlin) who can travel to infinite parallel universes called Shadows and fight against the Courts of Chaos and themselves. Riverworld by Philip José Farmer. A series about all of humanity (from when they first emerged as homosapians to around the early 21st century) waking up on a massive planet with a giant river running down the middle. Famous historical figures like Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) Alice Hargreaves, Cyrano de Bergerac, Mozart, Tom Mix, Sir Richard Burton and King John of England (to name a few) are all characters in the books. They then have to discover why they are there and who or what resurrected them. Otherland by Tad Williams. Not too far off into the future, virtual reality is used by corporations and civilians for everything from shopping to meetings, to entertainment. African techie Renie Sulaweyo learns that children are becoming comatose after her brother ends up a victim while visiting a strange VR club. Renie investigates and finds more than she bargained for in a VR entity that almost kills her despite such a thing being impossible. She glimpses a vision of a strange golden city that also looks too real to just be VR. This leads her down a rabbit hole to one of the biggest conspiracies ever, by powerful men with an insidious agenda. There are many characters, like Paul Jonas, a supposed WWI vet trapped in a bizzare world that is reminiscent of fairy tales, !Xabbu an African Bushman who is adept with technology, a boy, Orlando and his best friend Sam who play VRMMOs, and a mysterious old man trapped on a military base named Mister Sellars.

Bumping because the release date trailer came out: 7/29 is actually sooner than was promised which I hope is a good sign. Game looks amazing and the combat is a mix between 1 and 2. And there's Mecha combat now like in Xenogears and Xenosaga! Looks like a Nopon will join the team after all, unless they're just a guest party member.

I forgot to update. 6.1 came out yesterday and this patch is great. It adds a ton of QoL improvements, a new 24 man raid where you literally fight the 12 Gods of Eorzea, a new dungeon, new role quests, a new pvp mode that looks fun, and a surprisingly long MSQ. Lots of great dialogue choices here and fun moments. The 24 man was insanely fun. I don't think I've had that much fun in a 24 man raid since Void Ark first came out back in Heavensward. Final boss theme is a banger like usual. They totally revamped a ton of old dungeons. Castrum and Paretorium aren't facerolls anymore and actually require you to pay attention. They also are only 4 man instead of 8 now. They got rid of Cape Westwind, and Ultima Weapon is now a trial. Thousand Maws has also been streamlined and no more gunk puddles. You can do solo runs of ARR content with NPCs now, with Heavensward and Stormblood content being added to the list in later patches. Adventurer Plates allow you to customize your own adventurer 'license' but some people are making them super lewd because of course they are. Let's just hope the dev team doesn't remove it since it's a fun feature.

Nald'thal's theme 'In the Balance' from Final Fantasy XIV. Masayoshi Soken is a musical genius. I especially love the clinking coins in the song. Nald'thal are the Twin Gods of Commerce and the Underworld in XIV lore so the coins are a really neat touch.

It's a JRPG known as the Xenoblade Chronicles series. It features massive world maps, a great cast of characters, interesting lore, and a super unique world that is unlike anything I have ever seen in a video game, or any media for that matter. In the first game everybody literally lives on the backs of two massive dead gods that were once locked in an eternal battle. You go through the game actually climbing and walking on top of a god. In the second game there are these massive creatures that people live on and inside called Titans which are similar, yet different from the gods in the first game, mostly because the Titans are alive and swim and walk through the sky. The stories in each game are very different, and take place in different universes, but connect in surprising ways that make me think of a Sanderson novel sometimes. Here's a video of Xenoblade 1's Opening which is almost famous at this point among jrpg fans:

Did everyone see the new Nintendo Direct and trailer for Xenoblade Chronicles 3? I am so hyped for this! One of my favorite game series ever with some of the most insanely huge environments ever and a crazy good story. And it's coming out THIS YEAR (sometime in September). It looks to be a direct sequel to 1 and 2 with the cover art showing Sword Valley and the corpse of Uraya, connecting both games. You can also see what looks to be Melia and Nia. Here's the trailer link: Main cast (so far):

Apparently this song was super popular in Japan. These remixes by Hamburgaga of Shirakami Fubuki singing it are amazing.

So I beat Endwalker's MSQ (because I only had three days off and que times are a nightmare and I wasn't going to wait a month to beat it). Anyone hoping to try the game out should wait because ques can be in the 6000's. I waited two hours yesterday to get in and I got a lobby error once. My thoughts on this expansion are as follows: It's really good. Like Shadowbringers level good, but I think the pacing suffered a bit at times because they wrapped up the entire ten year story in one expansion with no patch x.1-x3 story usually finishing things up. The trials, dungeons, music, story everything is above and beyond what I expected. I especially love the first and last trial boss music and Radz at Han's music after you beat MSQ. So many moments hanging out with the Scions really made this expansion great. ***The trials are insane but they are gigantic spoilers so only click if you really want to know, already know and beat the MSQ, or don't care.*** The new jobs, Reaper and Sage are both really fun. Reaper can use Enshroud which lets a demon possess you for increased damage, and you can summon the demon to attack enemies which opens up a proc for some really cool looking attacks like Gibbet and Guillotine while Sage can use an ability called Kardia on a party member which will heal them when you deal damage. They also have Eukrasia which changes certain spells, like a healing spell will become a shield while an attack spell will become a DoT ,(damage over time). Kind of hard to use but they have floating laser bits so I love them. I think Shadowbringers was still my favorite expansion but this is a close second. So close in fact I don't know if I can compare the two so I won't.

I've been watching a lot of old Hololive stream archives and this one plays during Amelia Watson's intro. I immediately fell in love with it.

Endwalker has been pushed back two weeks from November 23rd to December 7th, with Early Access starting on the 3rd. Also the launch trailer dropped and it looks so good.

JINDO I KNEEL This arrangement of one of Unisuga's best tracks is even better with Jindo. The violin gives me shivers.

Absolutely amazing!

The full trailer for Endwalker has been released along with a slew of new information. The most important is November 23rd being the release date for the expansion. A lot of info was revealed in the Fanfest intro yesterday. Old Sharlayan was confirmed to be one of the new hub cities, Reaper job was revealed, Male Viera was announced, a new Datacenter for the Oceana region was confirmed, locations like lands under the earth and moon palaces were also revealed.

The new theme from the last Nier raid in XIV. It's Kaine's theme mixed with Queen Beast and the main theme of Final Fantasy. The language is the made up Chaos Language from Drakengard/Nier. Very pretty song for a boss that hurls skyscrapers at you.