Phantom Roxas

God, this match is a tough one for me. I love Twilight Princess, and it was one of the games that made me really want a Wii, since I didn't have a GameCube. I know that it was a controversial game at the time of its release, but I've always loved it. I've been playing more of Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition in anticipation of XC3 at the end of the month, so that game is much more fresh in my mind right now. That game is big, but even just looking at the Wii version, it pushed the limits of that console. While its art style was outdated even by the standards of its time, including contemporaries on the Wii, it wasn't too hard to look past that. The story is insanely good, the gameplay felt unique, though I realize that it's certainly not a game you'd recommend as someone's first JRPG. Operation Rainfall was an unusual but impressive campaign, and this was far and away the best of the three games the campaign was dedicated to. The sheer scale of the sidequests and affinity chart made me want to explore everything. Xenoblade is absolutely incredible, and I'm glad it's becoming such a bigger series now.

“It has to be one of us,” MachGaogamon said. Before this war, Arthur had been angry. Lost. Wanting nothing more than to lash out at a world he thought had been unfair to him. Throughout the war, he had grown. Though he still had much to learn, MachGaogamon was proud of Arthur. He had taken his first steps, and MirageGaogamon wanted to see how much farther he could go Gagagigo had found Eria again, and with her help, he was able to heal from his madness. Eria had saved both Gagagigo and Arthur. How many others had grown throughout this war, and learned more about themselves? Everyone deserved a chance to heal, rather than erase all their experiences, good or bad. If allowing one person to gain all the knowledge in the world was what it would take to bring everyone back, then the price seemed more than fair. And yet, MachGaogamon could not bring himself to volunteer. The Avatar had made it clear, the true price was your own identity. Everyone standing here now could only do so because they managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, and yet there still had to be one final sacrifice. “The way I see it,” said MachGaogamon, “One of us must make the sacrifice for everyone else’s sake. If we could bring everyone back, I would rather that we would all learn from this experience in ways that we can help our worlds, rather than forget about what has happened. I wouldn’t ask anyone else to forget, either. I do not wish to go back to the person I was before this war began. I am sure that there some of you who feel the same way. However, I also believe that some of us cannot bear that pain. It would make living so much easier if we could simply purge our greatest suffering from our lives.” This was about more than Arthur or himself. The entire multiverse was at stake. “If we reverse the multiverse to as it was before this war, it would allow Isamy and Protheus to return. I don’t care if their quest would be a wild goose. Right now, they’re both dead, and they should stay that way. It’s better for the entire multiverse than if we just brought them back, no matter how pointless their lives would be. What good would it be to prevent this war from happening again if Isamy and Protheus could just find something else to do? They would have millennia to wreak havoc all over again. Even if we would all have been dead for tens of thousands of years by then, allowing them to ever return is an option I refuse to risk. “We are trying to reset the whole multiverse for everybody else, but for one of us, we have to sacrifice everything. There will be no going back for them. We cannot count on being able to spare that person. I don’t necessarily agree that knowing all there is to know would be some so-called ‘death of personality’, but nevertheless, it is a risk we cannot take lightly. Knowing that those we can save would be waiting for us after all this is done could hold any of us back from volunteering.” The people surrounding him were either friends, former enemies, or people who had simply fought in this war for as long as him but still managed to be strangers. He was not the right person to ask this of so many people. However, a decision had to be made. “I know it is selfish, but for that reason, I don’t think I can be the one to use the Key. What I can do is help ensure that whatever we decide, we can all be certain it is the right choice.” Sora, Kairi, and Gagagigo all nodded, though none of them said anything. MachGaogamon gave a heavy sigh. “With that said, I suppose there’s only one question left. Do we have any volunteers?”

Going to avoid spoilers for everybody else's sake, but I absolutely loved this movie. I had high expectations going into this, and it blew them out of the water. This movie was a treat for a lifelong Spider-Man fan, and I'm looking forward to seeing where they could go from here.

Final Fantasy IV (3D Remake) Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light Kingdom Hearts Re:coded Kirby Mass Attack Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team

Yeah, they already set up several members of the Sinister Six in Homecoming, so it's weird having multiversal villains for this instead. Was Dimitri's last name ever confirmed? I know there's a decent chance that he is Chameleon, but I doubt they'd use him as Chameleon. Sinister War has come to mind as well, if only because, again, One More Day. This movie is using parts of it, while Sinister War may or may not be reversing it. It just seems... weird to have that story come up so prominently in both the comics and MCU. However, Sinister War won't end until September 22, so I doubt it has much influence on this movie. The coincidence is certainly curious, however. Given how Spider-Man movies get particularly criticized for having too many villains, a roster as big as Sinister War would be overkill. I think we should just have one Sinister Six for this. I know Vulture is going to be in the Morbius movie, so I wonder if that makes a difference here.

I did see the Lizard hint, and I could see that one. Makes sense that it would be him, especially since he was one of the ones meant to set up the Sinister Six. I do have to wonder who the sixth member would be. I think with the teases we've seen so far, I hope the sixth member is the "real" villain of the movie, though I could also see Mysterio somehow, given how he's traditionally a member of the Sinister Six. And while I'm reaching here, that could also fit with how Mysterio was the main villain of Spider-Men because he could access the multiverse. Between the rumors of Tobey and Andrew in this, and possibly Daredevil as Peter's lawyer, people are certainly expecting a very particular movie here. I only hope that this can live up to those expectations, and that people aren't setting themselves up for disappointment.

I feel like sometimes the numbers would only really be good if you already know the boss's total health, either if the game tells you or you know from a guide. In which case, you may as well have a calculator on hand, but at that point, that's just putting more stress on yourself instead of just focusing on taking the boss down. I think health bars are a good way of helping the player pace themselves. In cases where the animations are the same regardless of the strength of an attack, what makes the health bar drop faster is a better indication of what strategies to use.

Between that gif and coming off of the No Way Home thread, I feel like I have to ask a Spider-Man question. What's your favorite Spider-Man video game?

This trailer did just enough to get people hooked. If there is any truth to the rumors of Tobey and Andrew in this, that's probably something they'll show in the final trailer, unless their roles in the movie are much smaller, like a cameo or so. I haven't watched WandaVision or Loki yet, but I have read the spoilers. They are happening close enough together that it's the multiverse basically taking one hit after another. Peter and Strange are just the final straw. Something about this trailer makes me think that it's less Peter traveling between universes, so much as all the different universes bleeding into each other. I've seen a theory based on Peter's outfit at the end that he might be "replacing" Tobey and Andrew in their scenes, and while I could see some merit in that, I'm thinking more like, say, Crisis on Infinite Earths, with all the Earths merging together, but maybe it's not perfect. Like Strange said, "The problem is you trying to live two different lives." Peter cannot completely separate his personal life from his superhero life, so if he cannot make that separation, then all his lives, even from alternate realities, are blending together. Blur the lines even more than the end of Far From Home. I also appreciate that they're taking the barest of bones from One More Day (Technically One Moment In Time, considering Dr. Strange is the one casting the spell here), and going in a completely different direction with it. Peter's unmasking in Civil War was a quick sales boost, and they only did it because they already had One More Day planned. They could afford to unmask Peter because it was just going to be swept under the rug with the marriage anyway. Here, though? There's no marriage to erase. Peter's identity isn't a pretense for revoking something else. At worst, the executive meddling could be that this is how Sony gets the Sinister Six movie they've been trying to make for about the past decade. Even then, I wouldn't really mind that. People have made a good point about Sony endlessly rebooting Spider-Man, and this seems like a decent opportunity to make it all worthwhile. Captain America: Civil War showed that the MCU can take just enough from a bad story and make something great. I hope they do the same here.

Curious what you think about Gladiator Beasts.

After months of waiting, we finally got the teaser trailer for No Way Home. I've been really enjoying the MCU Spider-Man films, so I'm looking forward to this. So far it looks like some of the rumors have been confirmed, though still no sign of Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield here.

I really enjoyed Kizuna, so a spiritual successor for that sounds good. Also nice that they're revisiting literally any other time besides the original Adventure team. I hope Ghost Game is good. Young Hunters was bad, the few episodes of Appmon I've watched have been really awkward, and Adventure: 2020 somehow manages to rush through evolutions but still drag its heels with its story, and it lacks so much emotion compared to the original series. So... there hasn't exactly been a good batting average for the past few series. It really lowers my expectations for Ghost Game. I'm going to prepare for the worst, but hope for the best.