When it came to Grandia's magic system I found Xtreme to actually have the best one of the four titles.

Their mana egg fusion system allowed for pretty fairly balanced magic power-to-boss difficulty ratio. The natural rate of discovery for eggs resulted in just the perfect level of spells to deal with whatever boss was sent your way. And unlocking the strongest magics not only took time (unless you did insane early level grinding) but felt incredibly rewarding to discover. (I do Xtreme with no mana egg charts; and it's always a fresh feeling of joyful discovery when I figure out how to make one of the hyper eggs of doom on my own.)

Unlike 3...where as soon as you could fuse eggs you were able to create boss ending spells quite easily. XP

I actually don't remember much of 2's system. I think I ignored magic for the most part there. 1 was indeed a horrid grindfest in the late game. Plus there was always that feeling of getting screwed if you missed too many mana eggs and gave the ones you did find to party members who wound up perma-leaving. XP Such a dirty move. Always resulted in resets with that member never getting ANY eggs to account for it and refusing to give new people eggs until enough hours passed to be sure they weren't temp members. Pretty sure the game gives you more than enough for everyone but if you're not using a guide...you feel cheated.

The battle system. That's all you really need.

Grandia Xtreme proved a Grandia game can have wretched voice acting, sub-par in game models, and a lackluster plot; yet still be quite fun to play if the Grandia IP system continues to be tactical and engaging.

To be fair life-support might not be too far from the truth. I love the Vita and all but when you have publishers of said reliable Japanese games saying 'Sorry, not bringing games over for a sinking ship.'...

I only played the original and still have a soft spot for it simply because most of the character designs are gorgeous. Not sure if I'd pick up a remake though. Maybe only for the fact that the Vita is kinda RPG starved right now and Soul Sacrifice has zero appeal. So it's looking to be an empty year.

No recommends for Zettai Hero Project? A thousand lashings for each of you!

http://www.rpgfan.com/boards/index.php?topic=11193.0

Not sure who has what powers around here so instead of bugging person to person I figured I'd like ask here. Would appreciate that topic being nuked out. Can also do that to this one once you're finished just to clear room around here.

Much appreciated. ^_^

Honestly I might just skip on this one. I got up to the spider-lady on my own then pretty much took advantage of the old Dragon Head glitch while it still existed. Personally I don't think the lack of story and choice of aesthetic (nothing 'wrong' with it; just runs contrary to my tastes) mesh well with the enormous grind the game is. (Grind to get souls, grind the boss fights for patterns/tactics, grind for rare drops, grind for Humanity, grind for Reputation, grind for PvP drops, grind the entire game 3+ times over in one go to get all the weapons for Plat, ect.) Unless such a glitch pops up early on in DS2's lifespan; then I might give it a peek.

I think the technicalities of the Castle Law vary from state to state. Around here I'm pretty sure it's interpreted as follows:

-Do you perceive the immediate threat of violence/criminal activity against your person, family, or property?
-Is this area your 'property'? (Inside/Around the house, inside your car, inside the boundaries of your yard, ect.)
-Is a clear path of retreat, to the best of your knowledge, available?
-Are you blocking their path of retreat?

If the answers are Yes, Yes, Yes, No, then you pretty much have free reign to use any methods you feel required to defend yourself.

God of Fate pretty much had me at 'spiritual successor to ZHP'.

D2 I'm starting to lean on the 'buy' it side of the fence. I really, really don't want to play a Disgaea-style game on a non-portable console these days. But seeing the new custom classes tempts the SRPG deprived me this generation. Seriously where did this genre go? XP

Read over the article a few times just to be sure but...I wasn't told any difference. Item World, Item Sea...sounds like the same thing only with a name change. Need more information.

To be honest I have some semi-founded doubts about how well 'trained' any particular police officer may be at any given moment/location. My old man has worked in the prison system for well over a decade, I forget his exact rank but I know he pretty much sits somewhere high up on the food chain. Anyway he's moved from state to state as his position escalated and he's got quite a few stories about the ineptitude of people they hire to guard the criminals the system throws their way. Even in some of the 'high-flow' prisons discipline and training can be so lax that some of these people shouldn't be in change of pre-schoolers; let alone dangerous inmates.

My point being that if training has slipped so badly in situations where they know for a fact that they'll be dealing with 'kill you if you blink' types on a daily basis; how much worse do you think the training standards are for positions where you might be dealing with those people irregularly?

Maybe I'm being naively optimistic but it seems like the solution should be less 'Teach you how to kill someone with plausibly deniability' and more 'Here; have some proper training. Here; have some standard issue defensive equipment (like advancing Kevlar vest tech for something wearable entirely on duty) so you don't feel like it's a quick-draw contest to survive.'
__________

On a side tangent; isn't this kind of 'Shoot to Stop' mindset the sort of thing we're supposed to have SWAT teams for? I'd always assumed that was more the kind of 'permission' you only wanted to give your special ops teams, since they're only called for situations where this sort of reaction is required via advanced planning. Not for your average patrol officer.

I didn't see a front page news story so I thought I'd share my discovery the other day. Apparently BoS has been on the PSN for roughly half a month now.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/LAPD-Explains-Shooting-Policy-Following-Case-of-Mistaken-Identity-190485001.html

He explained what officers call “shooting to stop,” rather than "shooting to kill."

"We’re trained to stop," Vidal said. "A shot in the leg, a shot in the arm, is not gonna stop the threat. A shot in the torso, hopefully, stops the threat."

Nice to know that if a cop does think you're trying anything funny they're being trained to ensure you'll likely bleed out painfully on the pavement. /sarcasm

Imo; the benefit of the doubt should always be with the suspect. Always give them a chance to surrender, always aim to disable as non-lethally as possible; kill only if you absolutely must. If you're an officer you know the risk going into the job. You know your head's on the chopping block every day. You should not be aiming to slow-kill just because it's safer for 'you'. If you lack the stones to put yourself on the line to protect everyone then find another job.

Life has a funny way of laughing at you when you get small windfalls.

I finally was able to get a new laptop, a wireless extender, and a licensed Xsplit so I can do some LoL streaming...and it turns out the broken turn signal on the car is a result of the steering column being bad. >.<; Bleh.

I have a theory on Brony culture, one I will admit is likely quite defeat-able, but still potentially valid:

Even if there has never been a singular, specific admission by any significantly large number of people; the collective consciousness of these entertainment viewers has finally reached the critical point where it can no longer stand the drought of product catering to their specific tastes. This is akin to 'cultural starvation' for these individuals.

When you are literally starved, even a dry cracker tastes like the finest food ever consumed. Your body will devour it; in fact the impulse to swallow it whole may not be within the bounds of voluntary control to resist and eat it like a 'civilized' individual. You might've wanted (your specific tastes) something more fitting to eat than a cracker (something that grazes the edge of your peripheral interests despite not being the target audience), but at that point you cannot reject the survival impulse to eat when food is placed directly before you.

My Little Pony is this cracker.
The 'brony phenominon' is the involuntary disembowelment of the cracker; as observed from an un-starved individual.


I myself am not a 'brony'. (Ironically, despite being a writer, I have a deep-rooted hatred for fan communities* and what they represent these days.) But I think I can empathize with how 'wholeheartedly' they dive into the material when viewed from that perspective.

*Meaning more the mutation that 'fan' has come to represent rather than the traditional definition.