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I know what you're thinking - 'Rooke has news? He must be taking a leave from the site.' Well... HA! Not a chance, bub. No no no no no. I must annoy Tay, and I cannot do that while off in the never never. I merely thought I might highlight the day's news. Keeping up with the world is important if you want to remain learned and engaged. PS: Please don't hurt me Technology: 'Driverless cars can now ‘see’ around corners,' is the first headline I see, an enviable trait lacking in inferior, organic organisms. This new ability is truly wondrous and will be of great benefit to everybody’s safety… until the sensor breaks. Not like you’ll notice, because the light on the dashboard that glows green when there’s a problem with the sensors will also be broken. But it's not like you’ll care, because the cars ability to tell its left from its right will also have taken a vacation, causing your lucky self to be driven straight off a mountain pass to your briefly thrilling but ultimately painful doom. Nobody at the manufacturer will know what caused this weird phenomena, and your death will be written off as a ‘software glitch, ain’t that just weird ahahaha.’ No thank you, I’ll walk. More technology: ‘Volvo cars get advanced kangaroo avoidance tech in Australia’ – it’s called drivers with a working set of eyes, hands, and feet. Politics: ‘Malcolm Turnbull’s (Australia’s current Prime Minister) visit to Indonesia could reset our relationship with our sometimes-beloved cousins to the North.’ What blessed voodoo is this? The ability to reset relationships at will? How can I get my roguish, rugged hands on whatever it is he's obtained? Just last week he was busy flaunting his newfound powers when he ‘reset the Government’s relationship with science.’ It's just freakish. And convenient. And enviable. Mostly enviable. Because I’m sure most people have an ex-partner they’d wish to reset their relationship with... after they cocked up badly like so: Social Issues: 'An all-female, Russian astronaut crew was asked (by journalists) how they’d cope without makeup and men.' One of the astronauts (or cosmonauts) replied 'we are doing work, when you’re doing work you don’t think about men and women’. At this point every man listening scoffed and choked. Why? Well, take a look at the dude opposite you, the one enjoying a burger and some fries. Is he thinking about how delicious all that fried oil is, and how he's going to die young and full of regret? Of course not, he's thinking about sex. The guy who’s on his cell, in the cinema, arguing with the tax office while having shoes thrown at him, well he’s thinking about sex too. A man could be in the middle of the Arctic, during the worst blizzard of the century, being threatened by a man wielding a machete and with 3 Timberwolves snarling at his feet and he would still be thinking about sex. This idea of thinking about 'work' when doing 'work' is alien, and foreign, and clearly too radical to take off. Sometimes I weep for real journalism Health: A recent study produced this headline: 'Why do 55% of women report a lack of interest in sex?' Because of their partner’s appearance. Too easy. Next. World news: ‘US releases plan for solar flares and space weather disaster’ - Aims to launch the first of many strongly worded letters into space early next year. That will show them the US is not to be trifled with. Entertainment: 'Fifty Shades Darker’ release date delayed?' Are you heartbroken? I know I am… Feel Good: And we end on a happy note. ‘A 97 year old woman who was forced to leave high school 8 decades ago when her mother fell ill, broke down in tears this week as she was presented with an honorary diploma from her alma mater.’ A wonderful moment for someone who sacrificed selflessly for her whole life. Now, don't we all feel so much more informed?

Since I don't have anything set up to get pretty images, we're gonna have to make do with title screen images and links for this month. Next month will be shinier, promise! Here are all of the FuwaReviews for the month of October, 2015. Pretty solid month, overall. Some solid 8/10 titles that you should definitely look into, and some stuff that's more "If you like this genre, then maybe you'll like this." I'd like to offer a huge thank you to our Community Submissions this month - Zakamutt, OriginalRen, and InvictusCobra. Review Count for October: 12 fault -milestone two- side:above (by Ryechu) - October 2 - Rating 8/10 Link A Kiss For the Petals - Remembering How We Met (by Zakamutt) - October 6 - Rating 8/10 Link Cocoro@Function! (by OriginalRen) - October 7 - Rating 8/10 Link Black Closet (by Palas) - October 10 - Rating 8.6/10 Link Over The Hills And Far Away (by solidbatman) - October 12 - Rating 7/10 Link The "Jewel Stars" Series (Ruby Striker, Lapis Gunner, Amber Breaker) (by Ryechu) - October 12-14 - Ratings 4.5, 6, 5 Link | Link | Link The Menagerie (by solidbatman) - October 18 - Rating 3/10 Link Hoshizora no Memoria -Wish Upon A Shooting Star- (by OriginalRen) - October 19 - Rating 3/10 Link The Royal Trap (by Palas) - October 24 - Rating 7.5/10 Link Hanachirasu (by InvictusCobra) - October 26 - Rating 8.5/10 Link

Mmm... having finished the final path, my conclusion is pretty clear... This is a game that had a lot of potential that was primarily screwed up by how poorly executed certain game mechanics were and the way they did the two protagonists. In my previous posts, I already went over my feelings on the two initial paths and their protagonists, so I'll leave that where it is and move on to the third path. The third path - the true path - basically shifts gears completely, drastically altering the series of events immediately after Kai and Shizuma clash mech to mech for the first time. This is partially because of certain revelations that occur immediately before, and things progress rapidly to a revelation of the people hidden backstage... and the traditional 'lets go kill the bastards who have been manipulating us!' last ride down the mouth of hell. To be honest, after the mess they made of the other two paths, it was really hard to get up any enthusiasm whatsoever. Kai's path felt staid and forced, whereas Shizuma's path was... unusual but horribly painful to play through, primarily because of Shizuma himself. Shizuma actually becoming a human being is probably the best thing about the third path. He drops the paranoia and most of the angst, and he actually become something approaching psychologically stable. If he'd managed to drop into that mode in his own path at some point, I probably would have been more forgiving, lol. Other than that... Kai never does really grow that much. He remains a two-dimensional prop with a fondness for airheads (all three of the heroines are airheads or exceedingly naive in some way). He spouts formulaic phrase after formulaic phrase, right through to the conclusion. It doesn't help that the manipulators behind the scenes are also less than inspiring, once the initial emotional release is achieved. My final conclusion on the series canon issue is that one or the other is canonical but they can't coexist with the inconsistencies obviously present. Chronologically, Kenseiki would have had to have happened after Yumina but before Corona. Unfortunately, certain events in Corona make that impossible, so I had to just give up, in the end, on figuring out whether Eternal intended any of the series to have a true chronological consistency. Also, the difficulty spike near the end of the game is a bit ridiculous, though I was still able to get through it by picking off enemies at the edges until I'd isolated the more annoying ones... that and strategically making certain my people with support skill-blocking skills were available to all the other characters at all times to deal with the really nasty support skills the bosses tended to have. This is also true of Corona, in a way... There is a huge difficulty spike near the end of that one that makes it virtually impossible to achieve victory without abusing the protagonist/redhead/Corona combo to blast away the bosses' barriers. My final conclusion about the game as a whole? It would have been much, much better if they had made it consistent with the series' other games and had fixed the leveling so that all the characters would level together (I loathe the grinding that is inevitably required in srpgs where you have lots of characters who level individually). I also think it would have been better if they had really, truly made using Stigma and Alpharia a 'good thing', as they are both as weak as kittens, except for their support skills... and as mechs combined with their respective protagonists, they actually make Shizuma and Kai a little weaker, in some ways. The sword-people proved useful throughout the game, though the fact that some of the best party-attack skills are on them, so having them constantly equipped frequently felt wasteful. Story-wise... Kai's path was tolerable, Shizuma's path was painful, and the third path was good... but that just means they made the first three fourths of the game into a slogfest, which is a huge downer. Giving the sub-heroines their own unique paths was a good choice, as it gave them a chance to be distinct from one another. Unfortunately, the fact that the third path makes it all irrelevant kind of kills the fun, doesn't it?

Making moeblogs in IPB4 is suffering now, I used to be able to copy and paste an entire post and now I need to manually embed each image and make sure they don't get messed up while I'm at it. There's a good way to fix those frustrations, looking at adorable MOE will make it all better, no matter what's troubling you!