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Thank you!

The funny thing by the way is that even if they'd be willing to refund me the money I spent, they wouldn't be able to do so since Russian banks got cut off swift and master card/visa :D

I used to have a chain cross since around my birth and while it's just a piece of silver it still sucks it got bombed with the rest of the house :P Well, I just think that the value of an item has a lot to do with your emotional attachment to it and various circumstances. I've ordered this figure around the time the war started and by focusing on making sure it'll be delivered to me I kind of took my mind of "serious" issues so when I was notified that due to sanctions this shipping company won't ship it to me even though I've already paid for it, everything happening in the world and in my life came back to me and I became even more depressed than before. Still, I decided to make everything in my power to ensure I'll get this figure. You know, I just don't want to get fucked over something if I can prevent it from happening by exercising some effort. There are enough of things in my life I have no control over. And also, Altina is a great character and the figure looks amazing :D

So long story short: my house got destroyed, supposedly in an aerial attack. Given that there are several clinics, a kindergarten and a school nearby, there was even a small media campaign to show that Russian forces attack civilian targets. Since I wasn't there at a time (only saw videos and photos) I can't claim validity, but it sounds like such a BS. How does Russia even benefit from making locals hate it? It will only make it harder to control the occupied territory. On the other hand, Ukrainian side benefits a lot from this since most of their mayors and other people in power are encouraging people to fight to the last man and if people are afraid that invaders are gonna kill them all, they are going to fight for their lives. Still, I'm quite pissed about what happened to my home where I've lived since I was 6. Not to mention all the things I've owned. Was it really worth not surrendering day 1?

Anyway, the way western propaganda works is insane. From what I've seen it's all about bad Russians nowadays, everyone forgot about COVID, etc.
That's right, you can't buy anything at the moment, even on Steam. How the hell westerners think it will help Ukraine of Ukrainians lol. Thanks to these stupid sanctions American company failed to deliver my Altina figure and now I'm trying to think the way to get it to me. I wanted to re-direct it to Belarus and go there by train to get it, but they've sanctioned Belarus as well. Now it'll end up going back to Japan but at least I've talked to the shop where I bought her and they promised to hold to it for as long as I need, so maybe there's a chance to get it. Maybe I'll try to deliver it to some place like Kazakhstan and think of something from there lol.

Hey, it's actually very refreshing to see a different opinion on the matter, so far internet has been like some superhero movie for the most part, like there are some "baddies" needed to be taken down and the good guys from West. Thank you.

For me the whole situation a bit worse. I'm Crimea-born Russian who lived most of his life in northern Ukraine, I'm also a citizen of this country and I didn't ask NATO for any "help". I recently moved to Russia to work precisely because after the insurrection in 2014 western-backed Ukrainian government destroyed our economy and most of its public sector. I have relatives who are in danger right now and if my property in Ukraine gets destroyed I'll also end up homeless, meanwhile the West celebrates all the death and destruction which they provoked in the first place. So yeah, it's been exhausting to be on the English-speaking side of the internet ever since this situation begun. If you're interested, you can check some of my thoughts on the matter in this topic (ignore the articles at the top, they were added by the admin to preserve the rules) and these posts: 1, 2.

Another problem is that CEOs and shareholders usually don't care about the product that they are making and only see numbers. I'm not an expert in the field by any means, but the overall feeling I've been getting from smaller/niche/indie publishers is completely different to leviathans of the industry. Like they care more about what they are doing and what they fans/customers think of it.

Well, anime communities in the English-speaking parts of the world is a good example of how something falls into decadence once it gets big. When I was a teen anime wasn't taken seriously by anyone around me, but at the very least anime communities online had people on the same page - they were circles of people interested in the same hobby. There were trolls or just rude people in general, sure, but they were exceptions. A decade and half later I observe MAL and see the decline in the community. Most threads are some kind of provocative baits, obsession with scores, fandom wars, random insults (if you like X then you are Y, that sort of thing), etc.. And as for anime industry itself, it's still being made for the Japanese market, but we'll have to see how it goes from now on.

Thanks, though I'm not too hopeful since she's not that popular :P There are Rean's and Altina's figurines already available and Rixia/Crow should be made soon.

True, there aren't that many new games I'm interested in, especially from the AAA publishers - these reek of mass production aimed at exploiting high budgets and advertisements rather than making a good product, e.g. many people rant about EA being greedy & evil company, but their games are still financially successful so it means they have enough customers. Games like Sekiro, on the other hand, are rare pieces of art which you could easily ruin - decrease the difficulty to bring in casuals, add microtransactions or DLCs, etc., but it has none of it.

That said, even with dry industry there are still tons of good content left to explore. I've read Muv-Luv and Soukou Akki Muramasa not too long ago and both provided me with an amazing experience. I also wouldn't mind trying Tales series (had some of its game on Steam for several years but never tried), but it's a big time investment. The protagonist of Muramasa has a somewhat similar personality to Rean's btw.

I want to put some money aside in case they make Laura figurine, that would be a wonderful way to support the company and get something sublime in return, but even that has been rather difficult as of now... I'd probably go insane if I miss such limited merch. As for Falcom going big, I'm not sure to be honest. From my experience when game companies try to appeal to a wider audience, the content itself usually gets worse.

Eris is definitely one of the best tsundere there is. I've noticed many Kiseki fans also like MT for some reason btw. And as for Haruhi, I don't really know how that happened. I always wanted to watch it, but never did, and now I'm very slow at consuming anime.

Well, I've been thinking about giving it another try some time in the future, but at this point I'd rather use my time on something new instead. As of now the only games I'm interested in replaying are Kiseki due to emotional attachment to it and Sekiro because of its godly gameplay. If only I had the same vigor I had in my youth when I could play games or watch anime for tens of hours everyday X_X... I don't think I'll get freer any time soon, sadly. Life has been on a steady decline for quite some time for me. Anyway, I hope you'll have a great time with Elden Ring and be able to upgrade your specs if necessary.

I'm actually surprised there's no localization standards in English speaking world when it comes to video-games. Most of the times fans who do their work for free do a far better job than official publishers and it's been annoying me for some time. I've been buying Kiseki games on release with all DLCs and planned to get Crossbell games even though I've already pirated and completed them long ago, but after my disappointment in CSIII and CSIV translation I've been feeling very reluctant to give NISA any more money because if I do I'd be supporting what they are doing.
By the way, I also like Umineko and Eris, but haven't seen Haruhi yet.

My favorite would be either DS1 or DS2 and DS3 is the only FromSoftware game I've dropped :P I've been pretty burnt out around Aldrich and stopped playing after failing a couple of times at Dancer of the Boreal Valley. Probably won't be able to play Elden Ring for the time being, I left a better PC in my home country and now I'm in another with a weaker one.

Text boxes is all I'd need really. I actually want to have the full collection in my Steam library, but eh, NISA really disappointed me. At this point I'd rather give Falcom money some other way and play fun translation instead (of course, if it's better). Still... I don't have time for now.

Yeah, Rean's techniques could work really well with such a gameplay. Hell, you could probably replace wolf's model with his and it still would work out :D Do you also play Dark Souls?

There are many people who aren't fond of Cold Steel in general, but the way I see it, it's their loss. It's a wonderful journey worth of ~400-500 hours.

Thanks, I've downloaded it just in case. I still hope NISA will improve their translation, but I don't really expect it. They are making subs for the EN dub after all.

Fair enough, I guess, especially in regards to Crow and Sara. Damn, wouldn't it be great to have all of the subplots fully developed, each having its own chapter and all the little details. It wouldn't be realistic, though, CS games are already quite long as is. Finishing CS IV for the first time took me 169 hours. But still... My dream game is something with Sekiro's gameplay but with Falcom's spirit and about Laura's adventure in Erebonia or Zemuria for the purpose of mastering the way of the sword. Add to it some beautiful battle moves, a little bit customization, etc... Too bad I'm not some kind of extra rich millionaire to fund this :( All I can hope for is commissioning artworks, but even this would cost around ~$150 for a decent piece.

You are probably the first one I meet who likes CSII the most, but it's a fair choice and Ymir rocks anyway.

For localization, you can check some of the examples here, but in general - they made dialogues more sarcastic/rude/cringey than they really were (especially noticeable with Ash and Juna imo).
Can you give me a link for that spreadsheet/overlay? I don't think I'm going to use it now due to being busy, but maybe it'll be useful later.

I mean their place in the story and the player's party. All four members of Lloyd's group actively interact with each other, but the same can't be said about Class VII, e.g. you get see see Machias chat with Rean or Jusis, but not with the girls (with the exception of treating Emma like his academics rival I guess), or one might think Jusis and Laura could have something in common due to their background and interest in sword mastery (same as Rean), but they hardly interact with each other. Story-wise, Tio is the victim of D∴G Cult, which is the key component of Crossbell arc; the same can be said about Randy's confrontation with Red Constellation and Ellie being directly involved with politics of Crossbell/being a close friend to one of the antagonists. Emma's connection to Vita and Hexen Clan is the closest to what I'm talking about, but even her situation never felt as story-definning as that. Like, I can imagine Cold Steel story without her (just change things a bit and make Celine fulfil her role or something) but I can't imagine Zero/Ao without Tio, Ellie or Randy. That being said... I sure wouldn't want that to happen lol, because even though I have such a pessimistic outlook on the matter, personally I love original Class VII, I just wish they had a little more personal spotlight. And also:

Completely agree here. I understand why it was made so, but like I've mentioned before I was a bit frustrated by it. The funnies example is the last dungeon where you leave some of your party members as you progress deeper. I usually like to take my time exploring things, but when I had to leave first Laura and then some other characters behind, I just went straight ahead towards the boss while dodging the enemies.
My favorite Kiseki game used to be CSI btw, but CSIV had the most satisfying ending I've ever had a pleasure to witness, so it's IV > I > III/II to me.

You are the second person I meet here on MAL who would place Laura so high on his list. I don't really like making rankings for Kiseki characters, but for the sake of our conversation, let's see...
Laura > Everything else in Universe and beyond > Sara > Jusis > Crow > Altina > Gaius > Fie > Emma > Alisa > Millium > Elliot > Machias > Kurt > Ash > Juna > Musse.

As for why I don't rate anime, I just gave up. I've tried many times to change my scoring system but in the end was never satisfied with it. For example, how do I rate Full Metal Panic!? I watched it more than 10 years ago and all I can remember is that "Well, it was fun and MC was cool I guess?". Elfen Lied? "An anime with gore and pink girls". Chrno Crusade? "What was it even about lol". There are many anime I just not sure how to properly rate in relation to other titles.
Is there a fan translation of Hajimari out there? My Japanese isn't good enough to let me play a game like that, so I've been waiting for a translation, however... I've been very disappointed by NISA's localization so if there is a fan made one, I'd love to play that.

For the last five years Laura has been my favorite character ever so I'm obviously biased in her favor, but objectively speaking someone like Tio/Randy/Elie/Rixia/Olivier/Olivier/Schera/Klaudia are way more important to the story than her and rest of Class VII. For example, you can remove her and not much will change, at least not to the same degree if characters listed before were removed instead. I believe the same can be said about pretty much most of Class VII. Also, when I first played through CS III I was very frustrated due to a lack of content for Rean's classmates, ha-ha, but... All of this is just my own preferences and wishes. The focus of CS III was Rean and his students, so I should be grateful there was at least something about original Class VII at this point. That said, I didn't mind Rean's bonding with his students. That event with Altina during Mishelam intermission was super wholesome.

In terms of innate charisma and overall "brightness" Estelle loses to Lloyd a bit to me personally (I even cried a bit when he encouraged Rean during their meeting), but can't say I ever felt like she didn't deserve her role as a protagonist or performed poorly as a character. I agree completely about what you've said about Rean, however, he walked a long and perilous path to get where he is today. I think it's true that he overshadows the rest of class VII (they had much less overall impact compared to characters from Sky or Crossbell games in my opinion), but it's an issue with the game's narrative and doesn't take away from Rean's personality or his own story in any way. Him being a harem protag doesn't matter. Romance is just a tiny part of Cold Steel and I find it weird that people focus on it so much. And in addition:
1. It started from Lloyd or possibly even Joshua, not Rean.
2. Him being the center of class VII and Thors as a whole makes perfect sense for him to be popular among the ladies.

I see. It's just kind of sad Falcom fans fight each other when every Kiseki arc is amazing in its own right.

Do you really dislike Estelle though?