Yaramaki

Yeah same here, buying bottled water is such a waste of money imo. I do buy sparkling water during the summer but i don't really have a favourite so i usually buy the cheapest one i can find in stores because water is water and if you are realy thirsty any water tastes good.

I feel like tecmo koei would be a better and cheaper option for microsoft like you have Dead or alive, Ninja gaiden, the Atelier series and the entire Musou shebang as potential exclusives alongside whatever else tecmo koei has as ip's it would be a much better option for microsoft as you can reach a much more nicher type of gamers with these type of games and those usually like spending more money on games then more casual gamers. Like for example turning something like the Fable series into a musou game would make perfect sense for a spin off fable game instead of that sorry excuse kinect game that pretty much killed the franchise. I don't think microsoft needs to buy bandai namco, give BD a big sack of cash for a Tales exclusive and they are good to go. Maybe if uncle Bill finds some pocket change under his couch why not go for a new ridge racer aswell.

The thing is Microsoft tried really hard to appeal to the japanese market but alas failed quite a bit. With the first xbox you have exclusives like shin megami tensei nine, innocent fears and a whole slew of other more japanese oriented games like jockey road and the highly experimental N.U.D.E., you can find a decent write over at the gamer if anyone care here and then i haven't talk about the slew of sega games that were xbox exclusive like sega gt 2002, jet grind radio and panzer dragoon orta to just name a few. Those games were selling points to get the system and now that i think of it damn i'm even forgetting dead or alive 3, xtreme volleyball and ninja gaiden duo of games. With the 360 they really pushed to get a foothold into the japanese market, Who remembers the trilogy of rpg's that were 360 exclusives Blue dragon, lost odyssey and infinite undiscovery. Even tales of vesperia was a 360 exclusive for the longest time. Microsoft even managed to get the first 2 idolm@ster games exclusive before things blew up. Man and let's not forget the many bullet hell shooters were many are still console exclusives and offcourse the visual novel galore. So it's not like they diden't try. With the xbox one you had nothing of that, i think there were barly 200 games released in physical format in japan and no i'm not planning on collecting them anytime soon lol. Eventough a complete japanese physical xbox collection does sound nice but you know i've got to draw a line somewhere. It's too early to talk about series x as i see it's still those going well above the original retail price on sites like yahoo auctions japan and mercari. So it's asummable that avaibility is still scarce.

Playing a bit of rune factory 5 today

As xbox fan this always good news like music to my ears now if they slap future jrpg's on a disc and i'd be even more happy. I feel like the recent flux of jrpg's its more catered to the west tough as i doubt japanese are going to switch over to xbox, you also have to know that in japan internet is not as fast as we have over in the west, it's also one of the reason many japanese sites still look they were made 20+ years ago, so i doubt gamepass is an option for those people that live in rural japan, maybe things have changed since i last was in japan but i doubt it. As for How do you think they can do this? The only way i can think off make sure you have games that are worth getting an xbox for and try to keep all these more nicher japanese games out of sony and nintento claws by getting them on xbox aswell, pretty unbelievable that a big game like persona 5 and both ni no kuni games toke this long to get on an xbox platform. With the amounts of cash microsoft has you would guessed they give smaller japanese companies a sack of cash to get port their games on xbox, but no it only toke them an entire console generation to figure out that western audiences also like something more then halo/forza and gears. Speaking from a collectors standpoint i've started to notice that a lot more smaller releases seem to be getting a physical release on xbox, where it used to be playstation and switch only mainly because microsoft their unit demand was way too big, so that is a good step in the right direction, again it only toke them an entire generation to figure out that people still buy physical games and there is money to be made. But overall i feel like Microsoft their tokyo game show was as much focused on the west then it was focussed on japan. The message i got from it was hey we are commiting to bringing over more japanese titles so you don't need to get a playstation anymore if you want to play those games. I'd wouldn't mind dabbling a bit in the history of xbox in japan but it would take me another hour to write and you know i doubt many even give a shit. But yeah good topic @Techno thanks for creating it also if you feel like it please share your oppions aswell.

It's pretty much standard affair in any modern rpg these days, in dragon quest 11 you can redistribute skills at any statue or church. The witcher 3 also had a potion i think where you could redistribute all your skills. I think any modern assasins creed you can redistribute skills whenever you want. The problem is i can't really remember what games exactly because i usually tend to play as the warrior class and not look back so i never really have to make use of these items. I'm fairly sure dragon age also had an item that you could use to redistribute your skills atleast inquisition had because i changed my class to rogue mid game. A couple of others that i remember that had respec options were borderlands 2 and i'm pretty sure 3 had aswell and diablo 3 i'm also sure you could respec your character. I think this may be an interesting topic to discuss by itself but as my memory fails me now, should anybody be interested in creating such a topic i probably will have to boot up some older saves to see which games you are able to respec your skill points so i can add something to the conversation.

There are several other ways you could possible use as gaining additional points, why not have a game challenge, we used to have these high score challenges on other forums but i doubt this would work here as not everybody would have the same game. Why not try something like where a member could possible earn points for completing a game, it's fairly easy to prove these days where you show a picture of your tv or whatever else providing the date and achievement/trophy or just plain proof aslong the date is there that you beat the main story of a game and get a few points as reward. Or maybe Dc can give out some points where he feels like they earned it by contributing good posts to vgr on a consistent basis. Having a member of the week is probably pushing it but i feel like the member of the month idea i previously suggested would already be a good start. Say you get a game trough bid for rewards send in proof you played it and why not beat it and get your points back. Maybe do a quiz from time to time where the answers are not easy to find but have been posted on the board and reward those that read troughly like for example what genre of music does shagger like most or what is an animal theblackangel would not kill in a videogame, what is justin11 his favourite team, How many games has yaramaki bought in june, what is withywarlock his favourite game etc etc. I'm just making this up as i go as brainstorming always seems to help others come up with some ideas.

Care to post a link to your youtube channel Justin? maybe i can help you get to 566 subscribers 😅

Ask me this after new year when i'm starting my new job and the answer would be yes, since i have to work abroad every once in a while and mostlikely be on the road all the time, i'd say before a long drive Sneak may work miracles, not only that but it also would not take up much space in my luggage if i'm going to have stay in a hotel somewhere which is bound to happen at times.

I don't really see anything wrong with the current points system to be honest, it's not that it overly matters to me as i never came here to get free stuff as i came here because i wanted to talk about videogames and it's culture . I think i've got 2 switch games so far trough the bid for rewards program, while these are neat rewards and a nice gesture from dc, it should not be the main motivation to keep posting here and to me it never will. One thing you could do is make a overhaul of the Member of the month and reward second and third place also with some points, it would be more motivating especially for newer members that their posts are appreciated here and we want them to continue to post here. Maybe something worth considering @DC what do you think? If you are going to do a shop i'd probably say some vgr merch would be cool but i don't know i'd just rather buy it myself instead because you know some vgr merch would be cool tough. Yeah i wouldn't mind wearing a shirt that says Proud Moderator at vgr.com bitches or something along those lines lol. But i'll take anything i can get really even if it's cosmetics for the forum. I think the reputation is fine as it is and i'm probably the only one who sees it more as how reputable somebody their posts are as in quality posts, my goal is to reach 500 reputation by the time i hit 1000 posts, so far i'm on course. If i could reach it that means half my posts were liked and that is enough to put a smile on my face and to keep me motivated to continue putting time and effort into my posts, even if some take me over half an hour to write.

Above anything else to make a location feel real it has to be lived in wheter it's by npc's, animals or whatever creature you want. Npc's have to go about their way and have their own agenda not just be there to give the player a hint or just to sell are your junk to. The city or place doesn't necessary have to based on a real life city or place for that matter, the original fable was one of the first games that i felt like this is a world where other people live in and are not here because of me. I feel like the yakuza games also give a sense of lived in world that is not rivaled to this day and probably why not name one of the best and most underrated open world games out there sleeping dogs as this is how you create an interesting world, i've been to hong kong myself and must say the whole sleeping dogs world made me feel like i'm actually a tourist in Hong Kong at times combined with asian music and atmosphere you have a videogame location that feels pretty darn close to the real thing.

These days most rpg's have an option where you can redistribute skills and talents at some point or even any given point in the game either for a small fee or a special item so it's not all that bad where you lose hours of progress. Knowing myself i usually play as a warrior type class or something in between that so that is what i usually go for, i've tried playing as magician whenever i started a new rpg but i end up either restarting all over because it's not really my playstyle especially if the game is new to me. But if the option is just not there to redistribute skill points i'll take my loss and start over. But as stated i usually just play as a warrior and start experimenting with other playstyles once i've mastered most aspects of the game.

Where i live the series x is becoming more and more avaible i've seen it in a few stores here and there where you can just grab one, even a couple of local online stores like bol.com have it in stock. Ps5 on the other hand i've yet to see one for sale well at normal retail price.

I've never really played online much, i did it for a while during the early 360 days until i realised it was nothing for me and it's safe to say i rather play games on my own and create my own version of what is fun to me. I don't really have a problem with communicating with others as i'm a fairly social type of guy who can talk to pretty much anybody about whatever but i do however as you state it yourself don't really feel the need to be social, there are times where i'd rather be alone and just want to do my own thing wheter it's playing videogames or doing something else like go out hiking solo for an entire day. You shouldn't see it as a problem when somebody wants to spend some time alone or just want to be left alone alltogheter, no on the contrary it's a good characteristic to have.

2023 is still far away so from the games that are still coming out this year that i'm going to buy at launch or close to launch : Hokko life -> looks kinda like an animal crossing clone but since it's only 30 bucks at launch i'm willing to give it a shot, comes out on september 27th. Persona 5 Royal -> Because i want to support these atluse Xbox physical editions as much as possible. Mount & Blade 2 Bannerlord -> Kinda suprised this comes out on the 25th of october, if the first game was anything to go by this will be another time sinker for me. I still value the first game as one of the best open world games ever, since you can do pretty much anything you want. Lemon cake -> Don't know much about it other then that you run an old bakery, since i'm a baker in real life it's a no brainer i'm getting this. Harvestella -> Kind of a mix between farming, life simulation and a jrpg by square enix looks really promising hopefully it's better then run factory 5 I'm sure i'm forgetting a couple some have already been released like digimon surivive but i'm holding off until i can get them on sale maybe not this year but next year then.