I remember when Persona 3 came out and the JRPG fans on the Internet said all kinds of the same things that have since been said about 4 and 5...and my flat-nosed reaction was “I wish this came out 10 years ago when I still would’ve been in a mindframe to find this kind of story and character construction engaging.”

I got a pretty major Buffy vibe off of Sonia Belmont visually, given the time period in which they were developing the game. Whether that would’ve been a good thing is...debatable.

Oh, no doubt, and you conveyed that well in the article.

Paradox’s business model is basically a live service game without the live service. (although they’re trying out live-service-model with their new Gamepass-like subscriptions for CK2 and EU4. It’ll be interesting to see if that succeeds.)

I’m a hobbyist blogger with 5,000 monthly reads from about 3,200 unique users.

“and took diction classes to erase her natural accent.”

Fox News keeps coming up with new and inventive ways to be a disgrace to my name and the animal in equal measure.

My immediate first thought is that Paradox has one of the most unpleasable fanbases on the Internet...but if it’s as bad as you say with Leviathan...ouch.

“It wasn’t seasoned enough, and our theater’s condiment kiosks that let you pour salt or more oily butter on your popcorn were taped off in light of the theater’s new covid-19 sanitation protocols. Bummer.”

I moved to Seattle in 2013 and started out on the street.

“(Note: the kind of people who send fan letters to a PO Box listed at the end of a 2 am comedy/cooking show shouldn’t be allowed to mingle with the general public.)“

“that I’ve had to get over and train myself out of (coming from a “serious” classical music background).”

I’m one of those weirdos who actually loved Phantasy Star III, and the music was a big part of the reason why. That increasing complexity of the overworld theme was something that’s since become commonplace as a soundtrack trope (Civ 6 uses it to great effect as nations advance through the ages and their soundtracks…

Amen to that, and we really do need these laws on the federal level so all 50 states are playing by the same rules.

Hah...I’m talking about the Kent location of Mama Stortini’s. Used to be one up at Northgate in Seattle, but now they’re just at Kent, Federal Way, and Puyallup.

I wish. Regional chain that serves decent-but-not-great chow that’s better than Olive Garden but nowhere near the level of a place in the Nawth End or any Italian neighborhood in New York.

At least you got 52 cards. When I wanted to play cards, I had to go to a bunch of different merchants that had a 3 of spades here, an 8 of hearts there...and nobody wanted to play with me until I had at least 30 cards in my deck. I heard there was a guy at a gas station who gave out starter decks, but I never met him.

And people wonder why I never, ever, EVER play anything with an online multiplayer/social component.

I associate eating vegetarian/vegan with poverty, as in being unable to afford meat when times got tough.

If there’s a saving grace for the staff at your favorite restaurant, it’s that anyone who isn’t afraid to let Grubhub know exactly what they think of them can’t be all bad...but there are far better ways to do that than berating customers.