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.

Naw he’s off at RenFaire.

Welp

You say, I feel that, and yet every time another poll about the economy comes out its like I live in a different universe entirely.

The upcoming Fallout series on Amazon Prime. This is a screencap taken from one of the most recent trailers.

The other guy is worse, so we really don’t have to listen to a damn thing you say at all and you have to vote for our guy, get that through your poverty addled brains.

I mean I hate to say it but this is unironically true. As bad as things are now The Other Guy absolutely would make things worse. Neoliberals may be a scourge but MAGA is cancer. One of the bad cancers. Not even prostate cancer, like pancreatic cancer.

No no, we mean it, at least at that price. I’d be willing to kick YouTube a few bucks a month. I’m not going to pay them more per month than most MMOs. They’re trying to charge streaming service prices for content they don’t produce.

Good news! Apparently there’s a way to build Invidious for Podman, though it’s not exactly straightforward. That said, there’s an open issue to add official documentation for how to do it, so maybe that’ll get done. Eventually.

If you’re not afraid of Docker you can even spin up your own instance of Invidious. You won’t get much in the way of recommendations, but you won’t have to worry about the site going down.

Be the frontend you want to see in the world.

Jello is not vegan.

Let’s not forget the Mediterranean cuisine either. Falafel. Hummus. Baba Ganouj, Dolmas… crap I’ve made myself hungry now.

Depends on the brand IMO. I actually really like Impossible Meat; to me it tastes like decent quality beef with some really good hard to place seasoning. If it wasn’t so damn expensive I’d get it over actual ground beef.

Adiago’s IngenuiTEA is amazing for making loose leaf tea stupidly easy. I was gifted a few and I use at least one daily.

I’m sure someone’s made a decent copycat design if you have some aversion to the brand, though I dunno why you would.

That’s why you load it with a half cup of sugar.

Or just slam it like you’re doing a Jager Bomb

Kbin is an absolutely fantastic platform that has held up remarkably well given that it was not ready for the sudden influx of new users.

Plus side: a lot of bugs are being identified and quickly.

Minus side: Poor ernest can only do so much about them in a given time frame.

I still want to make this my primary Fediverse account simply because I like the idea of being able to use one account for both Lemmy and Mastodon content, but I have a backup on SDF that I need to use sometimes because things just don’t work right here.

Also not being able to see bots is a massive downside. Rather, not being able to see the formally declared bots; the dodgy bots masquerading as actual users slip through just fine.

Why must we let our memes only be dreams?

Ah, yes the ol’ “I knew this would happen if the liberals took over!”