The Olympics: Soccer

I been watching the Olympics this year, mainly the soccer matches, and been loving the action going on.

In the Women's league, i been rooting for Japan, Canada, and USA, and so far they have all made it to the semifinals! Of course I want USA to win gold, but I am okay with Canada or Japan getting it as well. At the time of this post, Japan is facing France with Japan winning. I'd love to see Japan face off against USA for a rematch from the last World Cup they had with Japan winning it. Maybe this time, USA will beat them, but first they have to get past Canada. Canada's women's team seriously impressed me this year; knocking out Great Britain's Team despite the fact Great Britain had never lost a game in the qualifiers where Canada had and was 3rd in their seeding. Despite their amazing game, I really cannot see them winning the gold. USA has the potential, as does Japan. I suppose if France beats Japan and Canada beats USA, they have a chance then.

In the Men's league, our USA team didn't even qualify! Due to that, I been rooting for Mexico (North American pride), Uruguay (I'm a fan of Luis Suarez), and Japan. Unfortunately, Uruguay got eliminated in the qualifiers, so I changed my cheers to Great Britain. I'd be rooting for them in the beginning too, but I like to limit myself to three teams. Honestly, all the teams were rather impressive this years.

I was greatly surprised with Senegal's team; they were fast and skilled. Mexico only recently eliminated them in the knock out rounds, which was a great match up between the two. Mexico seemed to be the superior in technical play with their passes and plans, while Senegal had the speed and ball stealing to really mess with Mexico. They made it into overtime even, but Mexico broke through with 2 more goals, sealing their win. The thing with their match is the ref was a bit of a dunce. He'd call some plays then ignore others. One huge thing was he gave a Senegal player only a yellow card for high jump kicking a Mexican player. I mean, it may not have been intentional as we was going for a high ball, but that was reckless playing!

Taken from a failblog-related site.

Also in the knock out rounds, Egypt faced Japan where the game was rather sad. I think the Egyptian players were observing Ramadan during the tournament, which means they were fasting during the day and eating only at night. The players were so exhausted in this match up, they were getting hurt left and right. They ran out of substitutes and had to play two men down; one due to a red card (double yellowed, it really wasn't much of a cardable offense) and another being injured. Japan proceeded to win 3-0. I found it rather annoying that a Japan player got upset he didn't get a foul call in his favor during stoppage time. It's like, dude, it wasn't that serious, you're winning the game 3-0, and there's a few minutes left. Get over it!

Brazil facing Honduras started off great, but thanks to ref being ridiculous, Honduras ended up with two men down due to red cards, despite being a strong team. Brazil even seemed to want to argue with the ref on the card, and even hugged or patted the back of the last Honduran to leave the field as if to say, "that blows, sorry bro."

One big surprise upset was South Korea beating Great Britain's team. It came down to shoot outs. As it was, I only caught the beginning of the game before I had to go work out. After a shower and everything, I went to check the scores and found out they were still playing. Turned on the TV just in time to see the last two kicks of the penalty kick shoot out where Britain player Daniel Sturridge missed his shot and Korea's player score, giving Korea the victory. I never would have expect South Korea to do so well, considering when I saw their games, they didn't seem to be anythign special. I say good for them. I also hear a lot of people ragging on Daniel Sturridge for missing his shot, but from the games I've seen, he is an incredible player. You really can't surmise one's skills from penalty shoot outs as that's more about luck and nerves. He just chose the wrong side/goal keeper chose the right side. I think I found another soccer player I'm a fan of, truth be told!

As it stands now, my ideal winners for the leagues are:
Women's league: USA Gold, Japan Silver, Canada Bronze.
Men's League: Mexico Gold, Japan Bronze, South Korea Silver.

I don't want Brazil to win in Men's league. I do liek that most of their players are much more humble than what I saw at the men's world cup, but Neymar on their team is a bit too cocky for my tastes, and over plays his fouls. I'd be fine if Japan got the gold as well, but rather North America get the honor for it. To be honest, if Brazil beats North Korea, I am not sure if Japan or Mexico would be better suited to beat them.

For Women's, I happen to like all the teams, even France's team! I just like the others a little better.

And now to leave you with a rather funny pose of Luis Suarez, which I so helpfully captioned.

NEStalgia: 8bit meets MMO

This is an article I wrote for a contest and was published. I've already spoke of NEStalgia in guide posts and in passing, but here is an actual over-view of the game.

Article published here.
----------------------------------

For video game fanatics who miss the classic games of the past, NEStalgia is the online game for you.

A mix of Dragon Warrior and MMOs, NEStalgia is an 8-bit online RPG filled with older RPG references while having its own original content. From fighting a classic slime monster, helping random town-folks with their stupid problems, to saving the world for reasons you are not quite sure about yet, you’ll find the many classic gaming clichés with a modern appeal. The difficulty tries to emulate the olden times as well, so expect to grind a fair amount. Expect turn-based combat, random encounters, and a choice of playing on a PvP (Player Vs Player) server or PvE (Player Vs Environment) server.

 

The game is currently hosted on BYOND (Build Your Own Net Dream), a website and community that is devoted to people creating games, and sharing them to the public. NEStalgia is free to play, but you can unlock additional content by becoming a subscriber. 

Now, I know there are some people that when they hear you pay to unlock additional content, that the paying people will somehow be stronger or better than free players (I was one of those skeptics at first as well). This is not true; the developer has made an effort so that subscriber does not automatically mean you are superior or should be better in any way. The main only benefits a subscriber has are: 

• Access to four other classes, which are neither better nor worse than the “free” four.
•  A special “shared” storage that allows a player to easily hand off items to their other characters, including “soul bound” items (items that, once equipped, cannot be normally traded to other players or characters). Note that the sharing of soul-bound items is rumored to be discontinued in a future update as well. 
• Special portals that a subscriber can use to warp to different towns with ease (for a healthy amount of gold).
•  Use of color dyes or masks to change a player’s appearance. This also extends to “Appearance Rods” that can transform you into animals or monsters (such as a slime, bunny, or cat).
• Special “crystals” that can mimic utility spells normally learned by certain classes. One example, the “Recall” spell, which returns you to the last town you entered, or “Outside,” a spell that lets you exit a dungeon or cave.
• Able to create your own guild. You can still join a guild without being a subscriber, though!

The benefits mainly are superficial, time-saving, or general perks that do not have a real impact on balance; other than different class’s abilities, anything a subscriber can do, a free user can too.

 

You have a choice of 4 different classes from the start; Soldier, Ranger, Cleric, and Wizard, aka the “free” classes. Despite them not being paid for, they happen to be the most specialized classes in the field. 

• Soldier is the best physical tank in the game, and has the highest base attack power. However, it is quite vulnerable to magical attacks.
• Cleric is your specialized heal-and-support character with capabilities to becoming a decent fighter.
• Wizard is your typical frail, multi-targeting caster with some small buffs and debuff spells.
• Ranger is a mix of the three, having a fair amount of heal spells (but not as many or potent as a cleric), able to cast multi-target spells (but only one element type compared to the three elements a wizard has), and can put into becoming a tank or fair physical attacker. It also happens to be the second fastest class in the game (naturally anyway).

If you become a subscriber, you have access to four other classes, Ninja, Merchant, Warlock, or Conjurer. 

• Ninja, the fastest class in the game and comparable to a monk or martial artist type, is very strong physically, but has low hp and mp, and can only wear light to medium armor equipment. It also has some supportive skills, such as slowing down an enemy, or burst damage that occurs in 5 turns.
• Merchants can have its party gain more gold per battle and increases its own item drop chances. It also is the second strongest class in the game (possible to become stronger than Soldier depending builds), decent tanking abilities, and has pretty average speed. It also can take magical damage better than a Soldier would, but still is a bit vulnerable to them. It also has a small array of supportive moves, such as able to check an enemy’s stats in battle, confusing enemies, or self healing.
• Warlocks attack by using skills that cost them their health. Most of their attacks will heal them as they cast, but they also are capable of healing their party mates. While they have a bit of a magey stat and equipment build, they can become decent tanks since their attacks heal the damage off them. Two iconic abilities they can use involve sending the damage it takes back at all enemies, and sacrificing itself to revive its allies.
• Conjurers are similar to sages; they have healing and offensive magic. However, it’s in a different style compared to clerics or wizard; their spells are base over time. When cast, their target will either be healed or damaged by a certain amount each turn for three turns, freeing them to do anything else they may need to do for awhile. If specialized, they can become quite powerful, offensively or healing. However, they also have the lowest hp and defense in the game, and their spells are fairly expensive, so they aren’t some sort of omnipotent caster class.

Characters are also very unique, in that you use a skill tree to form what sort of build your character will be. While you can obtain skills from the tree, rest assured you also come with certain skills automatically. For instance, no cleric can be without a basic heal spell, or wizard without a basic attack spell. You also can allocate up to 9 seeds to boost certain aspects of you character (more intelligence on wizard for spell power, extra healing power for clerics, and so on), and use a variety of different equipment to not just be a cookie-cutter type of character.

Example of a Skill tree

 As mentioned before, the game’s battles are turn-based. For those who might not actually know what “turn-based” is… Really? It means that you and your party picks its actions at start of battle, and then the battle plays out, often using a (r)andom (n)umber (g)enerator. As with most RPGs, you have typical battles you fight in random encounters found on the world map or in dungeons or caves, and you also have boss battles, both mini or main types. Often with boss battles, you will need the help of party mates, but it’s not entirely impossible to solo most the game, though it’s a heck of a challenge. You can have a party of up to three other players, though coming soon, you will be able to catch and use monsters as part of you party to help you out. You know, just in case your friends aren’t on, or otherwise can’t find any party-mates.

Also, PvP tournaments are held on all servers every now and then. Unfortunately, at the time of this post, tournaments are mostly halted due to an automatic tournament system in the works. However, I hear that the auto-tournament system is nearly completed, so scheduled tournaments will become a staple in game. The benefit of participating or even simply observing the tournament is being able to win colosseum badges. These badges have a small store of equipment meant for pvp battles, but also some special dyes or masks for subscribers. This is especially beneficial for those on a PvP server, but also good for anyone’s future tournament endeavors. 

While playing the game, you also get an opportunity to talk to the game creator and his staff. SilkWizard, the creator of the game, takes suggestions and feedback in the game forums, often giving a personal response. He and his staff also go in game often. I’d estimate at least once a day, but not necessarily every day. Usually, they’ll give a response to questions, unless they may be busy at the time, but that’s what the forums are for.

NEStalgia is still a game in progress. At the time of this article, the max level is 32, there are only 8 classes, and there are only two servers. However, updates that are on the way include the already mentioned monster companion system to help party-starved players obtain full parties, and the content expansion is planned to be worked on afterwards. In the content expansion, the max level will be boosted to 45, new places to explore, and rumors of being able to buy your own boat. The game will not likely be “complete” for years, but will be on-going. In the works is a standalone client, so one does not need to download BYOND’s program in order to play. There are special events that are planned around the year (such as Easter and 4^th of July specials) to give you a change of pace from the main story line. With monster companions coming soon, one could also spend their time “catching them all” and training all the possible monsters, if that is your thing. 

Why not give it a try? If you like 8 bit rpgs, and playing with people online, this game may be for you. If you do not want to play it… I only have this to say to you.

Links:

NEStalgia's BYOND hub page

NEStalgia Forums

NEStalgia's facebook page

NEStalgia's Wiki 

This was one of the articles I had published for a contest. I edited out link I originally had in this article because the links lose a bit of value when mentioned on my blog rather than the website the article originally was entered.

Article was published here.

Video Games: Better Played Later Than Sooner?

I think I might be in the minority, but I seem to very rarely play a game when it first comes out. Usually, money is the issue that keeps me from buying new games, but sometimes, I am just not ready to get the game. 

One reason is sometimes life just gets in the way of playing the games bought previously, or another game garnered attention. For instance, I still have not beaten the original Kingdom Hearts, though half way through it. It was because I had gotten into another game that I have already forgotten about. And of course, when I tried to get back into Kingdom Hearts, I was completely lost with what I was doing. As it is, I plan to start from the beginning whenever I manage to get back into it. Because of that, and numerous other games in my library, how can I think of buying a new game when there are so many others ready to be played (or other cases, replayed)? 

Sometimes, there is a game I’d consider buying, despite numerous ones already in my playing queue… but it is much too expensive to be purchased at the time. People are tight on cash these days, how can one afford some of these outrageous prices? Some resort to trading in their old games, but I have found trading in games is never worth it. Instead, I choose to buy them used. It means waiting on the game for awhile, but getting it at a reasonable price can make playing the game a bit sweeter! Thus, another game played when not new.

And of course, there are games you never heard of until way after they came out. My greatest example would be the .Hack series. I originally saw the anime play late night on Cartoon Network (MANY years ago, Toonami Midnight era). Thought it was pretty interesting and looked to see if there was a game for it! Lo and behold, there were four games in the series! Unfortunately, they had been out for awhile, and hardly anyone carried it. This was before Amazon was an internet-household name, so I spent my days searching in various gaming stores, and even in those electronics stores that just happen to carry games. Eventually, the collection was complete, and so I started the game. But after I beat the third game, I was going nutty trying to get every possible item before moving to the next disc, lost interest… and only last year was I able to go back, RESTART the game, and complete the series. But then I found a part 2 to the series, GU, where the hunt for this series began once more! Because I must complete the game’s entire series before moving on, of course!

Overall, I find playing these old games makes me appreciate them more than playing a game when it first comes out. I still do buy a game or two when it is still new if I really, REALLY like the game series, but it isn’t too often. Whenever I do, I end up playing the new game right away, streaming through it so fast that I find myself not enjoying it as much. Maybe I also just never was easily swayed by graphics, so old technology seems appealing enough to play again too. In either case, take this lesson when gaming: take the time to stop and smell the roses.

NEStalgia: Holiday Events

Decided to make this a new page for a NEStalgia Mini guide. I'll be putting all holiday-related event guides for NEStalgia on here. It's going to start out small, but as more events go on, we'll have more and more to add. Just like my other guides, this will be image heavy.

CONTENT: If this post gets too long or you are impatient, you should be able to simply use ctrl+f (or whatever function your browser uses to search a page) the title of the content you are looking for to find it.

• Easter Event
  • Choco Bunnies
  • Easter Egg Hunt
  • Ether Bunny
  • Easter Prizes
   
• Steamonia
  
  • Green Light Monsters
  • QUEST: Infringement
  • QUEST: Green Lights
  • Steamonia Tower Map
  • QUEST: A Battle For Recognition

Firstly, I'd like to apologize about the lack of normal updates, but recently, I had some articles about gaming placed on a website for a contest. So of course, I must share my views with everyone, because it's my blog dammit!

Article published here.

------------------------

Trading in Games: A Complete Scam

                I see it all the time; a little kid gets tired of his games, but wants a new one.  His parents suggest trading in his games for that new one. Maybe there is an argument between them, such as the kid wanting to keep his old games still, maybe there is not, but eventually, they all end up at a video game store that has trade-in deals. The family attempts to trade it in, only get a meager amount of money that is hardly enough to get the child his new game, so they end up putting money down anyway. They just lost some games AND some money for the new game under the guise that they just got a deal. Thus, another group falls into the trade-in scam.

                I am not sure about other countries, but here in the USA, one popular trade-in store is infamous for ripping people off with their trade-in policies; GameStop. Now, there is a lot to hate about GameStop; their employees pretend to know games when they have no clue, taking the games out of cases so the game comes opened even when new, employees “sampling” the “new” games thus ruining the quality of the products… But nothing infuriates me more than their shitty trade-in deals.  “Trade x amount of games for a new one free! (But only games we specify)” And their buy-back is almost always less than half of what you paid for, to which then they jack up the price when selling it in the store. Though, to their credit, GameStop can be good for BUYING used games when they are particularly old, but that can take quite some time. 

                As luck would have it, I just got an e-mail about GameStop’s “biggest Trade-In event ever,” where they say EVERY GAME gets 50% trade in bonus.              

  And, if you can’t read the small print, depending how the image uploads, it reads:

Trades must be in full working condition to receive full value. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Trade-ins subject to manager approval. Offer valid only toward games normally accepted in trade. See store associate for details. No dealers. Offer valid in the United States, Puerto Rico and Guam only. Void where prohibited. GameStop, Inc. reserves the right to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the offer for any reason without notice.

Some might ask, “But Tal, what can we do with the old games we no longer play with anymore?” To that I say… Think for yourself! Sell it! There are other options than the stores. My particular favorite place to sell stuff is Amazon. Only there can you sell a game you never opened for a lot of money. I once sold a Pokémon: Fire Red that I had unopened and in shrink-wrap for 120 dollars (To my defense, I already had Leaf Green, thus why it was unopened). Now, Amazon does take a commission, so in this case they got about 30 dollars. Still, it was quite a profit! I got the game as a gift, and imagine my gifter paid about 20 dollars, so really, 90 bucks profit to me, $70 value increase. 

Now, I do not sell too many games on Amazon, I mainly sell books, so there might be some trouble I do not know about. I do know that with all products comes the enemy of all other sellers; the penny sellers. These are the people that have some sort of good deal going with shipping and handling (on their side) so that they sell old items for only a penny, making money off of Amazon’s shipping credit that sellers get. Sometimes, normal sellers can get past the penny guys by having all the inserts and case with a game; condition of the product and the things it came with help out your prices. But, you also then have the people that try to undercut your price or just have better seller rating than you… When you first start out selling, people might not trust you. Also, there can be douchebag buyers too, which means some risk, so there are cases where Amazon might not be a great place to sell used games. You can turn to eBay, but I heard they charge you just to put up an auction…

There is one good thing about Penny sellers on Amazon and GameStop; you can sometimes buy from the penny sellers and use the cheap-ass game as fodder for a cheaper trade-In. This, however, can become rather complicated as you need to see what games are eligible for trade-in, find said games from penny dealers, do the math and see if paying the shipping & handling costs don’t outweigh the money you’d buy the new game for, and then wait for the games to arrive. Plus, I believe GameStop has gotten pretty smart, and is buying from penny sellers too. It is still worth looking into if you don’t mind spending some money and time to get a game cheaper.

So let’s say you have exhausted selling the game online… I suppose you could try a garage sale or flea market if you live in an area that has them. After trying everything that you could to get that better deal, but ended with no luck with a game or two, you could trade the game in to the store. Just make sure it seems worth it; do not fall for their sales pitches. If they are only going to give you under five dollars for a game you spent fifty bucks on rather recently, don’t give it to them. Hold out and see if the penny sellers on Amazon let up. If you just want to get rid of the game, try giving it to a friend who might like it, or donate it to Salvation Army (to those who do not have such a thing, try a charity that accepts video games. Example: http://www.childsplaycharity.org/). Do not support the scamming game stores and their fake deals.

Freedom was fun while it lasted... AKA FUCK YOU, OBAMA!

 I was planning to show a bunch of pictures of Faith, but goddamn this just pissed me off. If I had money I think I'd move to Canada.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/02/ndaa-historic-assault-american-liberty?newsfeed=true

"President Barack Obama rang in the New Year by signing the NDAA law with its provision allowing him to indefinitely detain citizens. It was a symbolic moment, to say the least. With Americans distracted with drinking and celebrating, Obama signed one of the greatest rollbacks of civil liberties in the history of our country … and citizens partied in unwitting bliss into the New Year.
Ironically, in addition to breaking his promise not to sign the law, Obama broke his promise on signing statements and attached a statement that he really does not want to detain citizens indefinitely (see the text of the statement here).
Obama insisted that he signed the bill simply to keep funding for the troops. It was a continuation of the dishonest treatment of the issue by the White House since the law first came to light. As discussed earlier, the White House told citizens that the president would not sign the NDAA because of the provision. That spin ended after sponsor Senator Carl Levin (Democrat, Michigan) went to the floor and disclosed that it was the White House and insisted that there be no exception for citizens in the indefinite detention provision."

Well, Obama... Hope you enjoyed your stay at the white house, cause fuck you for taking away our freedom. I suppose this means SOPA is a shoo-in. Maybe the Mayans were right; 2012 IS the end of the world.

Byond game: Dragon Warrior: Shadows of Erdrick

Different from my guide for Dragon Warrior: Hero's Destiny/Shadows of Erdrick 2, this is the guide for the first game that is probably more complete then the other Dragon Quest fangames. I'm going to go over the quests in the game with all the general spoilers. I won't go into the classes too much though, maybe just brief mentions.

UPDATES:
6/25/2013: I no longer host the game, so I've highlighted the parts only available on my old server, and in some cases, used strikethroughs for features no longer available. Most information available is still correct of the current version, though some changes may have been made that I am not aware of. If anyone would like me to add the new version changes, feel free to provide the information and i'll add them.

If anyone would like to help make accurate descriptions to the spells (rough amount of damage/healing, how much a buff or debuff increases/decreases on a target, MP cost, and so on), you may be rewarded in game for your help! Feel free to make descriptions in the comment section below. Also any errors or missing information reported is also appreciated!

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

To find what you are looking for, use the table of contents as a reference, and search the page (ctrl+f usually summons this on most browsers) for what you are looking for. Just copy and paste the line from the contents to find it.

Quest help and Maps of areas have been relocated to other pages, so just click on their main page links (denoted with +) or if looking for particular maps, you can just click the area/floor you want

+ QUESTS
+ Current MAPS
-- Evil World Map
-- Runweld Basement (Floor 1) (Floor 2)
-- Thenton Tower And Basement (Floor 1) (Floor 2) (Floor 3) (Floor 4) (Floor 5+6) (Basement 1) (Basement 2)
-- Smack's Cave (Floor 1) (Floor 2) (Floor 3) (Floor 4) (Floor 5)
-- BEACOM CAVE (Floor 1) (Floor 2) (Floor 3)
-- Agotrop Cave (Floor 1) (Floor 2)
-- Lava Cave (Floor 1) (Floor 2)
-- Hillock Farm
-- Sky Tower (Floor 1) (Floor 2) (Floor 3) (Floor 4) (Floor 5) (Floor 6) (Floor 7) (Floor 8) (Floor 9) (Top Floor)
-- The Dig (First Cave) (Second Cave) (First Area)


- CLASSES (C100)
-- Soldier
-- Pilgrim
-- Wizard
~~~ Wizard Valrog Weapon Exchange
-- Ranger
-- Bard
-- Monk
-- Thief
-- Goof-Off
-- Sage
-- LEVELING SPEED

- FARMING TIPS (X555)
- PET INFO (D500)
- AUGMENT INFO (A123)

NEStalgia: Skill Tree builds!

Skill trees for NEStalgia are officially out! Decided to share a few neat builds I have found so far so people may use them or build upon! Feel free to suggest a few of your own as well. I do not claim these to be "perfect" builds, these are just what work for me (or for others in terms of other people's builds).

Last Updated: September 24, 2013. I do not play this game much due to the lack of updates, so do not expect too many updates on these builds. If I get back into the game I will provide more help or if anyone wants to donate their own builds.

I leave you with builds I FOUND on the forums which have no explanation but hopefully can help you build your own unique skill tree. Made by BlackSniper on the forums. Builds located here.


INDEX:
To find a build faster, copy one of the below choices and use ctr+f (or whatever command it is for your browser) to search it.

•  Cleric Builds
  
  • Jumier's PVP Red Cleric
  • Jumier's PVP Maximum Healing Build
  • Smite-Cleric
  • Hybrid Cleric
• Wizard Builds
  
  • Grind Build 
• Ranger Builds
  
  • Paladin Build
  • Heal-Lightning Build
• Warlock Builds
  
  • Self-Reliant Build
  • Split Heal Build
• Merchant Builds
  
  • Treasure Hunting Build
• Ninja Builds
  
  • Dodgy Build
• Conjurer Builds
  
  • Healer Conjurer

MSPaint Hella Fun Time Adventure Friends

I found this on Newgrounds forums at first, then saw it spread around. It's basically one of those, "If you were in X situation with Y options, what would you do" sort of thing, but I could see this as a plausible game, whether someone creates it or just makes a forum game out of it (which I am considering).

If you can't see it, zoom in, that's original size and I had to zoom in to see tiny print under a few.

Everyone keeps trying to find a freaking bang Gwendolyn and Coily. Those who find it fruitless say they'll go gay for Rolf, or resort to fucking Cantelo. It's odd considering they little intro says there are other people like you with these creatures, why not hook up with someone on the island?

Also, to clear up some things...
-All of them are your friends to some degree. Even Mildred and Gwendolyn. Also, some are a lot more loyal than normal, which means those not super loyal might not always agree with what you want to do, but generally will do what you want. Exceptions being Mildred and Gwen.
-Mildred doesn't like you and never will. Using Boleslava on her won't make her like you more, just make her happier. That can still work in your favor though... She does not, however, hate you. She won't let you die or anything, but she probably will often mess with you. Oh you want food? Here, have some moldy bread. I can only see her killing you if you try attacking her or threatening her.
-The tiny text says this for him, but Womba-Womba can only be of any help in anything combat related. Don't expect him to help with digging or gathering food (though hunting seems plausible).
-Cantelo will do any task... to the best of its ability. Don't expect it to be able to build shelter too well.
-Archie can build great things and all, but realize he can only use materials around the island. (People kept thinking he'd build them a fortress of doom).
-Kazoo deems the following acts evil: Murder (unless in self defense or for food, but the food cannot be a sentient being), Theft, Torture, Rape, Bestiality, and stealing Womba Womba's hat (this according to some guy who drew the hella funtime friends)
-Kleptsy's alien weaponry can do some pretty advanced shit, but remember that they are cheap and easily can break. (Some people made scenarios where they'd mind control Mildred to do their bidding, failing to realize that the alien weaponry is cheap pieces of crap, therefore likely couldn't do desired effects for long and eventually break after too much use).
-Unknown how much water = death for Mr. Pepper, but I believe it to be a thing like water = bullets. If those bullets hit vital areas, he dies, otherwise is sick or something (thus damp weather makes him highly uncomfortable).

With all of that out of the way, choices need to be made.

I would probably choose Mildred and Cantelo, and here's why.

Mildred potentially is the best friend to have because she can attack and supply you with food. She doesn't like you, and probably won't help you at time, but in a desperate situation, it's nice to have someone who can head explode and provide food.

Though she might get rather annoying...

Cantelo essentially is someone to pick up the slack. I'd have to rely on it to help me with getting materials for a shelter, hunting/finding food where necessary, and also helping defend me. Maybe it could even find a way to get Mildred to make food more reliably.

Biggest problem would be shelter, considering I'd likely have to be the main builder. Maybe I would get lucky and run into another person to group with who had Archie, and we could team up. Mildred could be a decent ace in the hole, even if not a reliable one.

I think my approach on Mildred would be based on trades and favors in order to get her to do something. I doubt it'd work all the time, but every now and then, it'd be nice to get a food I haven't had in ages.

So readers... who would you pick? What would be your plan of action?

Stray kittie

Been awhile since I've updated. I have been distracted with a contest and game obsessions lately (Namely pokemon heart gold and Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2).

Today I bring you a cat that survived Hurricane Irene. He's been hovering around our house since then, as well as our neighbors, looking for love... and food~! I present to you the cat I have named, "Kittie." (not Kitty).

Originally thought to be our neighbor's cat, Kittie could always be seen begging for food at their house. One morning, my sister was getting ready for work when she heard mewing. One look at the cat and she instantly felt she had to help. She gave it some of her chicken salad (wiping away the mayo) which it gobbled up eagerly.

Around this time is when I woke up, and my sister jumped me, asking to put out some water for it too because she was running late already. I was cautious about being too close to the cat when I did that, and it seemed to sense my apprehension as well and backed off. I wasn't sure if it had fleas bouncing around it or other diseases. From then on, Sis became one of the feeders of the cat.

During this time, the neighbors noticed her helping out as well and approached her. It turned out that while they did help feed the cat, it wasn't theirs! This cat must have sensed our neighbors other cat and knew they had food or something. They tried to take it in but it fought with their cat. Instead they took to feeding and whenever it stopped by. They were hoping we could take it, but our landlord said no more pets after our dog died some years back.

I ended up feeding the cat once during a really bad rain storm. Sis had too many things to do at night at the cat was mewing for food. Being a bit of an animal lover, I caved in and grabbed the cat food Sis bought and put it out for it. I still was hesitant to touch it. There was a time when I pet a friendly stray cat and had fleas jump on me, so strays make me very nervous to be around. This cat still seems pretty well groomed though, and well behaved!

We believe Kittie got lost during Hurricane Irene, or perhaps even abandoned. It appears to have been well taken care of previously and very smart! it had gotten two households to feed it, seems to know just when someone is walking by a door and able to give you that "feed me please" look. It also is aggressively friendly! Today while Sis was feeding it, I went out to tell her something and Kittie jumped right over to me, rubbing up against me. So while it may not like other cats, it definitely seeks affection from humans.

We are now in the process of finding it a home. We rather not spend money to put it in a no-kill shelter, and refuse to let it anywhere near a kill shelter. I'm also scouring Craig's List to see if anyone lost a cat.

Hurricane Irene: After the storm

As mentioned last time, I had to endure hurricane Irene. While the damage wasn't as bad as it could have been, it was rather tiresome.

A comical Satellite representation of Hurricane Irene. CLICK for animation!

When I last left off, I was just describing the aches we had while away from our home. I was staying at my cousin and her husband's place while my parents were at a hotel, and my sister was staying with her boyfriend.

Hurricane threat levels are now apart of Nyan Cat

Sleeping in a new place is rather hard, I'm sure many people have encountered this sort of problem. I slept on an air mattress that took up all space in the room. No TV, so instead I set my laptop on the mattress with some videos I had downloaded; it sufficed for my noise requirement. I didn't get to sleep long, however, and awoke around 3 or 4am. I was up for the day from there, though did sneak in a 10-15 minute nap around noon before my sister came by to help pick up our fridge supplies we had stored here.

We got home, and a wave of relief came over me. It was so great just to be home! Unfortunately, this relief was not to last; I was put to work! The biggest work we had to do was empty out my sister's room of her things. The carpet that was drenched had to be taken out, and we simply did not have enough room to hold all of her things around the house. Sis had to sort and pack up her things, as well as decide what she wanted to get rid of or sell at a garage sale thing she had planned. I got the honor of grabbing boxes and other things, and walking them out of the house. My sister was not short on crap to keep, might I add.

My cousin and her husband (who I shall refer to as Daisy and Cook respectively) offered their attic space for my sister's things. I got the honor of bringing a lot of the supplies up there too, though Daisy, sis, and I worked together on that more than we did at home. Sis was going to be staying with them until her room could be situated.

In those two days (Day of hurricane and the next day), my pokewalker-pedometer picked up over 50,000 steps! My feet were killing me so badly! I was thankful they weren't too sore the next few days though; it seemed a long rest in bed helped a lot; ended up sleeping for 14 hours.

From that time until just yesterday, my sister had been with Daisy and Cook, except over the weekend where she slept on our couch. Only reason sis did not stay overnight with us during weekdays was because she has work early in the morning, and mom stays up late in the living room. She would keep Sis up until late hours every day which just won't do! During this time period, we were feverishly working on both her room and out storage room (which is next to her room).

Basement floor outline, ignore grayspace as that was reference for an older entry.

As we were moving things about, we also went through some of our old stuff. Nostalgia of items of the past was nice a little, such as finding my old creepy crawlers playset (the original too!). A lot of things were thrown out or to be sold at a garage sale. Not too long ago, Sierra, Sis, and I helped paint Sis's room. Sis made it out to be a lot of help she needed, but she ended up doing a lot herself (by choice). A few days ago, we got her new carpet and just yesterday we installed it. I have a few small pictures of the room I took on my 3ds.

Sister's room, still with a bit of junk at the desk.

Only 20 minutes since the room was redone and she already had her first mess!

This morning, we unfortunately had a small "flooding" incident, but it was due to pipes leaking. It was on the laundry side of the basement luckily, but unluckily, she had a new closet we had just bought for her over there. The backing of it got warped slightly. Sis is feeling pretty depressed about that on top of all the shit that happened. Hurricane Irene happened on the week of her birthday to make matters worse! But still, it's pretty mild compared to other things, it's just stressing her out. She is highly considering moving out sooner rather than later now.

Found out my cousin, Olivia's (in past was referenced as O) mother's trailer was flooded to the point where it was no longer usable. Walls and floor was damaged too much, and the smell would stay forever. She lives right near a creek, so she is used to flooding, but it never got this bad before. My aunt apparently didn't lose much else, and did have flood insurance. Based on what Olivia told me, the flood insurance wouldn't cover much anything other than another trailer. For now she is living with my grandmother, which we would not be surprised if she ends up stayign there so she can take grandma's house. We always suspected she would make a grab for the house, but now she has an excuse to. Don't get me wrong, I'm not heartless to the fact she lost her home, but she has been pretty much living at my grandmothers already ever since my grandfather died. Only thing was she just went home to her trailer to sleep. Good thing her daughters are already out of that house; Olivia at my great-grandmother's old house and Ginny (previously referred to as Y) is at her college dorm. One thing that rather pissed my family and I off was my mother and aunt's brother (or my uncle, but i wanted to show that he is not married to the aunt I am referencing) told my mom she should call my aunt and comfort her for losing something. Yet they said NOTHING to us nor offered and single bit of help when we were struggling with our electricity and nearly-flooded basement. It's just another one of those messed up family things I have mentioned; Olivia and Ginny's mother is always the person everyone must feel sorry for, everything bad happens to her. But if anything happens to us, no one really cares unless it is hospital related.

I leave you with a picture Butterfly took to show the hurricane's damage, along with another friend of mine, Mustang, who had got some serious flooding in his area.

Butterfly's neighborhood, north of me.

Mustang's neighborhood, south of me I think.

Hurricane Irene

Yes, I was in an affected area of the hurricane from this weekend. Not a lot of fun, let me tell you.

I managed to go to sleep at a decent time for once, but of course that was ruined as I awoke to a power surge. The TV, air condition, and light that I leave on had turned off for a moment, but what really woke me up was when everything came back on and the TV was booming again. Confused, went to weather channel where it showed me the hurricane was right on us. They were pretty calm about it, so figured this was all normal and started to drift to sleep again when I saw a HUGE flash outside my window and the power went off, this time for good.

I laid in my bed for awhile, hoping it would just come back on, but after 5 minutes of just laying there, I decided to go investigate a little. After turning off my laptop and grabbing my flash light, I went out of my room and looked outside the front windows of my house. Rain and wind of course, but my street was out of power! I could see some lights in the distance though, so knew it wasn't like all of my town.

Back to my room, I fumbled around and found my incredibly old walkman with radio and searched for some channels for information. My sister awoke about now and came upstairs. I called to her, letting her know what I knew. We talked for awhile and she told me of the AM channel that has info for our area. Apparently, people had lost power all over my state, but it seemed to be only here and there. All coastal areas of course were having trouble, but some towns were perfectly unaffected according to the news on the radio channel.

The old radio-cassette walkman

Sis went back to her room for a bit and I to my mine, but soon our parents had awoke and then everyone was walking about. Candles were lit, flashlight supply gotten, and we spread both around the house. Even my upstairs neighbors could be heard fumbling around. Mom can't handle heat too well unfortunately (she has MS), so the lack of air condition was really messing with her well being. She ended up going outside in the wind and rain since it was the closest way to keep cool. We all ended up out there at some point, whether just to keep mom company, or explore the damage.

WAY down on my street, I had seen lights, so it seemed that just most of my street and parts of others had no power. We saw a service vehicle down the street in front of someone's house that we mistakenly thought was someone already working on the power, but it ended up being someone setting up a generator for our fireman neighbor. Funny enough, dad had actually borrowed two generators from his work, but neither worked, unfortunately.

After just walking around, talking, and complaining, we all conked out around 7 or 8 am. We had all been getting giddy; at one point, my sister was laughing at her own shadow from the candle light... so I put on a stupid shadow puppet show, haha! I ended up being the last one to fall asleep. I need to have noise to fall asleep to, or else I just can't sleep. Also it was hot... The radio walkman helped me with the noise part at least, and I managed to sleep until around 10am, where my sister woke me up to let me know our basement got drenched and she needed help with her room.

Our basement wasn't flooded per se, as the whole floor did not get submerged or anything. However, half of my sis's room had a wet carpet and the laundry side of the basement had a lot of wet floor. Dad was already up and taking care of the laundry side by sopping up the wet with rags, and my sister wanted me to help sop the water out of the carpeting for her room. That really was a waste of time and a pain in the hands, to be honest. The carpet was pretty much dead, and would always stink.

When we finally gave that up, we just focused on saving things in her room. She not only lost the carpet, but a few papers, stuffed animals, and a pillow. The water also finished off her old hand-me-down dresser, but that was going to be replaced anyway, so not a huge loss. Helped dad with bailing some water out of the basement stairs that lead outside as well (General outline of my house can be found in the middle of an old post, the HomeStuck dream). My cousin and her husband came over to help us out with some of our problems as well.

Our neighbors were pretty awesome people during this. My upstairs neighbor not only gave us ice for our fridge, but got tea for my mother. My next door neighbors also gave us ice and let us know what they were finding around the neighborhood; some powerlines went down around the corner. And we all were told by the power company that power would be reinstated next week. Yeah... that's some hardcore bullshit. Parents made reservations at a hotel, my sister stayed with her boyfriend, and my cousin and cousin-in-law invited me to stay at their house.

I went around the corner to see the damage and got some pictures. While I was over, some of the neighbors on that street saw my camera and said, "Oh, want us to pose in front of the damage?" and did a little pose, haha! I wish I actually took that picture. XD

A downed tree limb.

What I suspect to be where the limb broke off of.

A power line this limb took down... or maybe the power line that took down the limb?

Further down the street, this powerline burned into this fellow's lawn and melted.

This power line broke into the sidewalk slightly.

More broken sidewalk!

Here's the big ass damage!

A close up of the above.

What my dad suspects to be the cause of the damage; it's one of those things that keep the wires away from each other and in place. Dad suspects the wind knocked some wires loose and it got shocked, and melted into some wires before breaking off the powerline.

The flash I saw in the middle of the night was not lightning, but in fact these powerlines going down. The neighbors I had met around the corner told me this as they were right there. They, too, got the message of power being restored in a week, and said they were going to raise hell with the power company.

Another neighbor lost his fence.

We spent hours trying to save some things. Since the lunchmeat would go bad, we all ate sandwiches for breakfast/lunch. Dad had a friend that let us put our freezer related goods in their huge walk-in freezer. My cousin and her husband let us put any fridge things we wanted to save (and could travel) in their fridge as well, so we didn't lose TOO much. Ice Cream and a few other frozen deserts were unfortunately could not be saved (RIP).

We all packed up and got to our destinations. Sometime around 7pm after we all were situated, our upstairs neighbor called us to say that power had came back! Since we were tired, we decided to just stay where we were anyway; as we were MUCH too tired.

Yesterday was another day filled with more aches, but I'll save that for another day; I don't have any pictures that are as interesting so it'd just be another wall of text. Hope everyone who had to deal with Hurrican Irene survived all right!

Island of the Giant Pokemon - A scene from the pokemon anime

This is one of my favorite scenes in the entire pokemon anime!

Yes, I made that. Was going to try making this a GIF image, but getting the timing right was too tedious for me.

In other news, my sister helped me find a decent price for .Hack GU - Volume 3 - Redemption on eBay. She has used eBay in the past so knew what to do and such. Ended up paying about 5 dollars less than I paid for the previous two games. Now just hoping the seller isn't a jackass.

Women's World Cup, Part 2

My prediction of the winners had almost came perfectly true. Japan made it to the finals with USA, and when Sweden and France played, Sweden won. But today, Japan beat USA in penalty shoot outs because USA choked.

There is no reason to be angry with Japan for how they played; they were excellent and took advantage of our mistakes just like any team should do. I am happy for them as this has to be a monumental moment for their country after the earthquake related disasters. It even turns out their original coach had died because of the Earthquake. They won it for their country and for their lost coach.

USA played well throughout the main game. It was when they made it to penalty kicks we just choked. They put the goalie, Hope Solo, in an awkward position by missing 3 kicks. She managed to save one goal to keep us dangling, but it wasn't enough, nor should have been relied upon. I'm proud of them for making it so far, however, and will hope for their success in their next big event... I believe it's the Olympics. I think that their showing in this World Cup garnered them a lot of attention, so perhaps more people will watch their games.

I realize many people say, "it's just women's soccer, it doesn't matter," but that because of the stigmata the media portrays, in my opinion. There much more support for male leagues, which is sad but true, thus gives us less interest in the game. Hell, soccer alone in our country is not exactly popular either (though it's gotten a lot better in terms of interest over the years).

However, I really have no interest in watching most sports. Basketball, Baseball, and (American) Football are completely boring to me (ESPECIALLY american football). Soccer does something different, though. It feels much more exciting to watch with a lot more pressure. It's probably because I grew up playing soccer, though I also did play a little basketball and baseball.

I also have to say, despite this being a Women's World Cup, I felt it was a hell of a lot more exciting than the men's last year. I suppose it is because two phenomenal teams I was rooting for made it to the finals this year. I think I shall be watching more of the Major League Soccer matches on TV though, both men's and women's. I sort of wish we had a co-ed World Cup, but I suppose it could be a bit too much, especially how people would react if a man fouled a women... Still, I think it would be amazing to have and would stop dividing our sexes.

Little tangent aside, congratulations to Japan for your well deserved win in this year's World Cup! :)

Dragon Warrior: Hero's Destiny 3/Shadows of Erdrick 2 Guide

Just like my Nestalgia and Archipelago Remastered guides, I'm making another BYOND game guide. This one is a lot less popular than either of them, but recently came back and one of my preferred fangames to play despite some bugs.

Game link - So you know where to find it.
Class Information (90% accurate) - Link is dead, use the info found in the guide below.
The Old Message boards (Still works, but hardly used)
Mekan's Accurate Personality Bonuses Currently down.

YOU MAY NEED TO RIGHT CLICK-VIEW IMAGE THESE SO YOU CAN ZOOM BETTER (Or save them)

Adding now an easy way to search the page so you can find the map or guide you want easier.

BYOND game: NEStalgia Guide

I decided I will be making a helpful guide for NEStalgia (Note: NOT Nostalgia) as I go through the game. Mainly, the secrets they don't want to be told. They have some general guidelines on their wiki thing, so if you need to know when a spell is learned or what special stat bonuses you can get, that's the place to go. If you wish to gather all the treasure from the secret passages they have, navigate the mazes without trial and error annoyances, and so on, this is where to turn. I did something similar for another BYOND game, Archipelago Remastered by giving away all the recipes you need to know for the game.

This is the original NEStalgia guide! Before the game had a population boom, this was the place to find out where the hidden passages were, or how to solve certain puzzles. While I know a much better site has come along, I still will keep this here in case anyone still wants information. Special thanks to my partymates (seen in some later images) for dealing with my slowness in getting the screen captures. Must have wasted so much of their time, haha.

UPDATE: In progress of making skill tree builds for people. This will be on a separate entry due to constraints with adding more images to this post. Skill tree builds located here.

CONTENTS:

MAPS

• BEGINNER CAVE [Wiki Map version]
• ENNAR HIDDEN PASSAGES
• BANDIT CAVE [Wiki Map version]
• BALZACKIA [Wiki Map version]
• CATACOMBS [Wiki Map Version]
• PIATTA [Wiki Map version]
• DAGGER COVE
• PIATTA NORTHERN CAVE [Wiki Map Version]
• BEDOE [Wiki Map Version]
• MOUNT VEZU [Wiki Map Version]
• VERITY [Wiki Map version]
• LIGHTHOUSE NAVIGATIONAL MAP [Wiki Map version]
• PIATTA-VERITY CAVE
• ARDAN
• YETI CAVE [Wiki Map Version]
• ICE PALACE [Wiki Map version] (Includes Spirit finder Quest)
• COLOSSEUM/CRYPT
• THE BLACK SANCTUM

PUZZLE SOLUTIONS/MISC

• WOODLAND MAZE SOLUTION(S)
• DAGGER COVE QUEST: A PUZZLING PARROT
• BEDOE QUEST: SLIME TRAINING PATH SOLUTION
• BEDOE QUEST, "TEST RUN" COIN LOCATIONS
• BEDOE QUEST, "COIN COLLECTOR" COIN LOCATIONS
• VERITY QUEST, "THE LOVELY BONES" FOSSIL LOCATIONS
• YETI CAVE MAZE SOLUTIONS
• SPIRITS QUEST IN ICE PALACE
• HOW TO ENTER THE CRYPT
• CRYPT DUNGEON PUZZLES
• DROP RATE FORMULA
• UPDATE HISTORY