I am waiting for it to be released on either the PS4 or PC.  I won't be buying a Switch just for this game no matter how appealing it is.

It's a Nintendo-published game so you'll be waiting a long time

I finished Bravely Second over the weekend. Here are my final thoughts: The story is good, and less repetitive than the first game's, but at the same time I'm not sure it was as strong as Bravely Default's. I did like how they incorporated the player more this time. The first game was pretty subtle about it, but this one was very overt. The battle system is still just as fun as the first game, but the job system has been downgraded somewhat. It's still fun, and you can develop some pretty powerful characters, but not as good as the first game. The change from 14 job levels to 11 also nerfed some of the old jobs slightly, which was disappointing. In the first game I had a dual-wielding, Dark Knight Tiz, who, with sword magic, could deal around 15,000 damage with a regular attack. I wasn't quite able to do that this time around, but it was still enjoyable nonetheless. The new jobs were mostly disappointing, or simply rehashes of older jobs. I liked Guardian and Exorcist. Hawkeye was okay. Yokai was really just a higher-powered Black Mage because of the -ja spells, and Kaiser, while kind of cool, was very much a double-edged sword.

All in all, I give it an 8 out of 10.

Final jobs:

Yew was Yokai with Time Magic. I'm glad I went that route because Reraise was essential for the last boss fight.

Edea was a Valkyrie with Shamanism. This turned out okay, but the last boss had a dispel skill that kind of made it less useful. Jump is still great and Edea went mostly untouched damage-wise because of it. If I did it again I would probably swap Shamanism for Martial Arts to amp up her attack power somewhat.

Magnolia was a Guardian with Shamanism. Worked out well, but same problem as above with the dispel. I would swap Shamanism with the Dark Arts if I were to play it again because Guardian has high HP and the final boss is weak to dark attacks.

Finally, Tiz was a White Mage with Astral Magic. If I would have known about the dispel though I probably would have gone White Mage with Catmancy to increase his attack options, or possibly Exorcism because of the Tongues command.

Quote from: Grainofariver on Yesterday at 09:08:24 PM

At the end of the day it's such an odd game to talk about. Personally, I'm enjoying the goofiness. For instance, there are moments where you can talk to party members in town, and they ask you questions. Answer correctly and not only will little hearts will pop up, but the character will give you an item. When I answered elf-girl's question correctly, hearts popped up, she blushed, and gave me an item called 'magic nectar'.

I busted a gut, because the item is just a standard mana restorative (albeit a 100% one, further adding to the hilarity).

This doesn't sound hilarious though. This sounds like your typical harem scenario with the "subtle" double-ententes, that's maybe amusing if you haven't seen the other 1001 other exact same scenarios making the exact same "subtle" double-ententes. Hell, noted PS2/3 JRPG series Ar Tonelico not only did the harem scenario but went total ham on it, and compared to that, Shining whatever doesn't even compare. But that and the mediocre/not even Tales of combat are the legs it chose to stand on, and those stubby nobs can only manage to stand up into the crowd. Blending in. Getting lost in a sea of tepid mediocrity.

I forgot about this game between 2014 and 2017, managed to forget about it until its launch a week ago, and I'll probably forget about it in about a month or two, if that.

My point was that it wasn't a 'subtle' double-entente. 'Magic nectar' is a standard item, and it wasn't a date scene -- just a regular conversation. It was just a combination of coincidences that made it amusing. If it was intentional, it wouldn't be funny.

It's similar to how being able to destroy things as a dragon is funny, because I honestly cannot tell if the devs even remotely thought that through. They designed this combat system around breaking enemy's guards for massive damage, and even have multiple characters that you can control for different play-styles, then render it all pointless with the dragon. They limited the dragon by making it go insane after a period of time, but quickly give you the BAND option, which negates that time limit for a different, longer one that also buffs the whole party. The game itself even suggests that you use this strategy, which just further makes me wonder what was going through the dev's heads.

I guess what makes the game work to me is that it's trying so hard to be more, but it keeps getting slipped up by its own stupid mistakes. It has a plot and characters and gameplay that it takes seriously... but doesn't seem aware of how dumb, broken, contradictory, or tread-to-death it is. I mean ffs, the arc for the main character is that he's scared to use the power of the dragon... that you can literally use in every single battle from the start of the game.

It's this complete lack of self-awareness that makes the whole thing funny, at least for me. It's no DmC: Devil May Cry (which is, to quote a friend, "Truly 'The Room' of video-games"), but personally I'm still having enough of a good time to feel like it was worth the cost. Is it a good game? No: I never said that, which is why I wouldn't really recommend it to others unless they've totally exhausted everything else in the genre and are desperately in want for this type of game. Won't stop me from enjoying it my own way though.

Given the lack of an announcement, I doubt there's going to be a Shining Resonance 2, but SEGA is looking at their older IPs, so who knows what the future has for the franchise. I don't think you should ever buy a game solely for the chance that the next one might be better, but seeing as I'm getting a good laugh, discounted price, AND a chance for a localisation of the next -- hopefully better -- Shining game (hopefully Shining Force because for god's sake SEGA, throw those people a bone)? Nah, no regrets.

I recently read War Against the Weak by Edwin Black, about the eugenics movement during the first half of the twentieth century in America that spread overseas to countries like Germany. Definitely a good look into an overlooked part of U.S. history.

I feel like I'm being made to sound like I'm anti-creativity or anti-competition or something.  I've said repeatedly that competition is healthy...

You said a lot of things, so please don't think I just TLDR'd straight to this: I read your whole post. I just want to hone in on this because I think it might be the source for a lot of confusion.

Maybe you have said that competition is healthy many times elsewhere, but being that I only occasionally pop-up on these boards, I haven't seen those discussions. All I really had to go off of is what you said in the earlier posts, none which brought up creativity, competition, or "If I can't get what I want, I'll create it" until the second-most recent post (which was made while I was typing). I just went off of what you said at the time, and if that wasn't reflective of or was only a part of how you actually felt... sorry, I just don't know you well enough to fill in the blanks.

I said earlier that I don't care about Omega Z on a personal level: only the broader issues of censorship. I believe you should vote with your wallet (which is why I think MonCapitan is right to stop supporting the publisher, even if I don't personally agree with the reasoning), but how can you do so when there's nothing to purchase? Personally I do just that: if a publisher does a good, I make an effort to buy their game (I bought Shining Resonance in-part to support the future release of Shining games in the west). If the game is censored, I buy it used or borrow it from a friend to deny the publisher a sale. That said, with the massive rise in digital distribution, I wonder how much longer that will be a viable solution. When there is no used copy and borrowing from a friend involves taking the whole console, it becomes pretty dang hard to legally play the game while still refusing the purchase.

But that's a conversation for another day, yeah?