If you want to bypass grinding entirely then you’d need something like that, but it might trivialize certain parts of the game. Won’t trivialize all of it though since several of the key fights rely on strategy.

That was someone’s insane interpretation of the ending of the first Mother game (a.k.a. Earthbound Beginnings). It’s not as out there as the guy who filled the Silent Hill wiki with claims that it was all symbolism for circumcision trauma (yes, really), but it’s still kinda nutters.

Yeah, you do have to grind a bit. Nowhere near as much as some games (looking at you, basically every Final Fantasy game) but the leveling is designed around you doing some extra fights for XP. Every new area generally has a “grind spot” that is moderately to incredibly obvious, typically some grouping of enemies that are enough to fight but not enough to overwhelm you, placed within reasonable walking distance of a bed, hotel, or other way to refill your HP/MP for cheap/free.

For the first town, before you take on the punks roaming the streets you should get some levels fighting crows, dogs, and snakes up near your house. Once you can kill them in two turns or less head into town and try taking on a single punk. If you survive that fight without being nearly dead, keep fighting punks. If you almost die, go heal up and farm a little more. And if you DO die… well you only lose half the money you have on you, so as long as you keep most of it in the ATM you haven’t lost much of anything.

EarthBound was the first JRPG I ever completed and the first JRPG I ever enjoyed. Before it I’d never been able to get into JRPGs: there was just too much complexity while also having too little going on. Wandering an overworld only to be randomly pulled out of it for no apparent reason was maddening. As a kid, trying to piece together the backstory of some undefined thoroughly detailed fantasy world while also taking in the emerging plot in the opening sequence wasn’t anywhere near as appealing as firing up Mario or Mega Man and getting straight to the action.

EarthBound neatly sidestepped all of the things that had stopped me from liking JRPGs. The equipment system was simple without being braindead. The setting was a pastiche of suburban life that I could easily understand. The stakes were high but the tone was still whimsical and amusing. And above all I knew why I was suddenly getting dragged into battle with a snake or a crow or a dog instead of just being clotheslined by combat.

EarthBound still is my go-to recommendation in the (increasingly unlikely) event that someone says “I’ve always wanted to get into JRPGs, what should I start with?” It is the perfect “intro to JRPG” game without feeling trivial or like it cannot stand on its own. It singlehandedly made me love the JRPG genre, and I probably would not have played literally every other JRPG I’ve ever played if it wasn’t for EarthBound.

Try to see if there are any that do that little Javascript-evaluation-to-render-the-client-side-site thing, and if there are, have them mine cryptocurrency for you.

Using your evil powers for good I see.

My high school had a “no hats indoors” rule and even that was regarded as dumb. No hats at all? Screw you if you wanna keep the sun out of your eyes I guess?

No hats. Toques are allowed, everything else is banned.

It’s always rough when a gang of Chefs take over a school.

Supposedly there was a similar policy at my elementary school early on, which led to a kid being forced to eat something they were allergic to. As the story goes, they vomited violently all over the lunch monitor and then had to be taken to the nurse’s office. Their parents were not amused. The policy did not stay in place.

Wait what happened to Risa?

You actually have to switch modes? Mine just has a lever that goes either forwards or backwards depending on which nozzle you want to use.

Agh, right, so you are.

Larger point still stands though.

From the site:

IDDQD: Instance For /vr/, /tg/, /g/, etc.

In other words an offshoot of 4chan’s gaming-related boards (vg - Retro Gaming, tg - Traditional Gaming, g - Gaming). Unfortunately it’s 4chan, so…

I’ve had great luck with pine- and corn-based cat litters for low/no scent and low/no dust. Only problem is that they usually don’t clump, though they do make ones which do. Oh, and they’re all much lighter than the normal stuff. I’d say give one of those a try.

They’re more like AndroidTV boxes with a full menu and HDMI-CEC support, only they came out back in the day when Chromecasts were just for casting. They were also dirt cheap; unfortunately that’s because they were made with bargain-basement parts which often failed or started to overheat easily a few months in.

Funnily enough I think the percentage use of adblockers is going to go up a fair bit thanks to what Google is doing. My amazingly sweet “just go along with anything” MIL actually complained to me about YouTube ads the other day, then ads on websites in general. She jumped at my offer to install a different YouTube client and a good adblocker once I explained that it was a possibility for her tablet.

If they wanted to pull this off they needed to do it quietly, not draw attention to the fact that adblockers exist and are apparently so effective they need to do something very public about them.

You would think, but the number of people I’ve met who surf the web without any adblockers at all and just seem fine with it is alarming. I think Google is counting on a lot of people just not knowing any better.

Won’t stop me from informing them otherwise though.

Played the Beta, thought it was… good. Better than 3 in some ways, but not up to that oppressive, almost claustrophobic ambiance in D1 that made it so damn good. That said, I loved rolling around as a Shaman Werewolf tanking everything. Was it the most effective? Nope, but I tanked Butcher twice and the World Boss and survived. Felt great.

Haven’t played the game proper on release though. Got drawn into other things actually. Am looking forward to it.

Diablo III. First time I played it was at the urging of my friend, who told me unironically, “don’t worry about the plot, the plot doesn’t matter.” Unsurprisingly my experience wasn’t particularly engaging and I lost interest, not seeing much reason to play it over any number of other games that didn’t have an always-online requirement.

Flash forward several years later. My then-girlfriend (now spouse) asked me if I’d ever played a Diablo game, and I related my experience. After she was done sputtering and emitting various noises of extreme outrage she insisted that I set things up so we could play through Diablo 1, 2, and then 3 together. I went in to D1 expecting to be similarly disappointed and instead found an incredibly dark, atmospheric, and compelling story. Oh and we did get The Butcher so I also shat myself. After that I was way hyped for 2, and by the time we hit 3 I was far more interested in playing. Loved the hell out of it, found myself not only enjoying the game but completing through the last stages of a season journey to score extra stash space and all that. Not out of obligation either, I was legitimately enjoying the grind.

Cheaper bulbs, definitely. I had a corner display cabinet I tried to switch over to using an LED bulb; the compartment for the bulb was nearly sealed and also lined with reflective materials, so the exterior got hotter to the touch than it ever did with an incandescent bulb. Damn thing started flickering and malfunctioning a few months in. Tried another LED bulb and the same thing happened only on a slightly longer time frame. Finally just gave up and went back to an incandescent bulb.

Swag. The more we show up in search, the more people will be asking “what the heck is Lemmy?” Some of 'em will join.

Well then. Here. We. Go.