Spyke

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anime

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Anime Questions, Recommendations, and Discussion Thread [2026, Week 43]

This has been so far a bit slow season. I'm watching The Apothecary Diares season 3, and well... I don't know, maybe I was expecting more, considering we're into season 3. I'm also not fan of the new setting, not to mention the profound lack of interaction (or progress!) between the two leads. Feels it's been 3 episodes of a lot of nothing, with a very small side dish of the season overarching mysterious plot.

I'm also watching Ramparts of Ice season 2. Season 1 surprised me with how good it was. But season 2 is becoming a bit too heavy too fast, and I think I'll wait until all eps are done before resuming watching it.

Finally, started watching Romelia War Chronicles (I apologise if that's not the English name); it's fine so far. Nothing too great, but also good enough to convince me to watch a bit more. That said, the main lead def needs a bit more time developing her character; so far it's a bit hard to get her.

So, overall, a bland start to this season. Thank goodness for backlogs!

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Which TV series do you think receives unnecessary hate?

Friends. Sure, many of the jokes haven't aged well, and the laugh track can be a bit too much for modern audiences, but it became an icon of its generation for a reason. I get that some people may not vibe with it, but it's nowhere near as bad as the mainstream Lemmy makes it out to be.

On that note, I really miss that kind of "wholesome" sitcom. It feels like newer sitcoms are all about cringe or the ridiculous lives of shitty people. While Friends' cast may not have been paragons of humanity, they were, or at least so in the first half of the show, good, regular people. I miss that in TV.

games

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Sabotage's retro-RPG Sea of Stars hits 4 million players

This was perhaps the most beautifully crafted jrpg I'll never finish. While the nostalgia hit me like a truck, after just some 8 hours I just felt I had played it all. The graphics and the music may be the very best in the genre, but the gameplay left much to be desired. Time-based inputs are nice (though they do get tiresome after a while), but there's just no substance in the gameplay. Progression is slow af, and I didn't feel there was much to unlock other than higher numbers, which are meh.

Amazing piece of art, though.

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What Final Fantasy opinion are you defending like this?

I have two. First, I'm in the VIII > VII camp. To be fair, I played FF8 before playing FF7 (though I've been playing FF since V), so the downgrade in visuals really hurt. I also don't get what's the deal with the Squall hate. Sure, he's a bit whiney at the beginning, but you can really feel his growth. Same with his relationship with Rinoa (that's her name, right?). I could see those two falling with each other in a more believable way than other jrpg ships.

Second one, V is better than VI. Sure, VI has higher production value, and arguably a better story, but the class system in 5 was top jrpg system in the snes era. I also felt more closely attached to the small cast of V rather than with the gigantic cast of VI (I honestly cried in the aftermath of Galuf vs Exdeath). Again, V was my first FF, so that may be nostalgia talking. Though I recently replayed with a patch that improves the class system, and it was a banger of a game. Plus, Battle on the Big Bridge.

Feel free to fight me.

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How Difficulty Class and the D20 engine ruined roleplaying

The author may have a good point--though I'm honestly not entirely sure they do--, but even if the D20 vs DC turns the experience into a gamist simulation, what is exactly the problem? Personally, I'd rather play a game of dice than "mother may I" with the DM.

I've been playing since 2e, and I very much enjoy the mechanical aspect of the game, to the point that I grew tired of 5e lax and vague rules and moved to PF. That doesn't mean 5e is bad, it's just something different from what I want, and that is ok.

games

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Visions of Mana | Announce Trailer

Unlike many others here, I did enjoy Trials of Mana, so I am looking forward to this one. Looks amazing!

...except for that generic shonen hero. I am so done with games with generic shonen mc. I get that the new generation has to start somewhere, but it'd be nice to see more variaty in mc characters. Or on the very least let us create our own.

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What's an interesting etymology for a common term?

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No, libra (the unit of mass), and libre (being free) have unrelated origins, afaik. Libra comes from scales, as in the Libra constellation, wheveas libre comes from liber, related to freedom (and not books (or "libro" in Spanish); that's a different word), which apparently comes from even older languages, meaning "town" or "people".

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I asked ChatGPT to describe a hypothetical world where parents had to each give one eye to their babies.

While this sounds like an interesting idea in principle, I can't see a world like this surviving for long. You're basically capping the birthrate at 2 per couple, which in turn means the average birthrate would be lower than 2, thus below replacement level.

I think it's more likely the world would adapt itself to everyone being blind, and the practice of giving eyes to newborns would become some mythical thing that no one does anymore.

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What Youtubers did you drop, And what caused you to do so?

Not dropped entirely, but Ceave Gaming. I haven't been able to finish a single one of his latest videos, and while I once liked the convoluted way he approaches topics, lately I just want him to get to the point. His latest challenge vids are also fun, but I don't know, I just can't stomach them for long anymore. Not sure if it's just me having less free time or patient, or something more intrinsically in his vids, but I guess at this rate I'll be unsubscribing soonish. :(

android

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*Permanently Deleted*

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Thanks for this. I was about to ask if Japanese input was supported. Why is it so hard to find a good keyboard for both Japanese and English? I usually have to end up sacrificing convenience in one or the other.