My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Live Reactions & Discussion)

Well, all things considered the episode was still pretty good and the ending felt really cathartic. Last week and this week, MLP is starting to get me to care again.

We'll probably be seeing a bit less of CMC's tho from here on out.

So, uh... since everyone else has given their two cents already...

I was as surprised by the ending as everyone else was, and as for the episode overall... it's a helluva lot better than "Keep Calm and Flutter On" and "Magical Mystery Cure" while taking cues from both, but that's not really a compliment, is it?

Admittedly, I'm largely apathetic to the CMC, and I thinks Rogers works better with comedy scripts, so the actual content of this episode didn't do as much for me as it did everyone else. But the pacing was good, the visuals were fun, and all the little continuity nods/explanations were well appreciated.

I sort of agree with the people that contend DT's reformation was way too abrupt, but I was very (maybe unduly) impressed by AKR turning the "Diamond" part of her name into a Meaningful Name beyond the standard "diamonds = fancy-schmancy snob" connotations: a diamond is beautiful, but merciless. Valuable, but cold. There's no shortage of people in real life who try to be one, and the sad thing is... some of them succeed.

Does this mean her full name is "Diamond Tiara Rich"?

Apparently pony names don't work the same as human names.

The Pie family might, but the Apple family doesn't all have Apple in their names. Rainbow Dash's dad is Rainbow Blaze, Twilight's mom is Twilight Velvet...

That sounds like the descriptor they'd give in Mean Girls.

"Some people are rich. She's Diamond Tiara Rich."

edited 10th Oct '15 4:34:37 PM by BorneAgain

So...

Anyone else here read Alan Moore's Marvelman (aka Miracleman?). In a lot of ways, it's like a rough cut of Watchmen, and in some places that makes it a better (or at least funner) reading experience.

If nothing else, I don't think I'll be looking at "Star Light, Star Bright" the same way ever again.

Yeah, but if her father's last name is "Rich" and her mother's last name is "Rich"...

Oh yeah? Play Dead Space and tell me "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" doesn't make you go a little cold when you hear it from now on.

edited 10th Oct '15 4:49:07 PM by HextarVigar

Having themed names for a family seems to be more of a preference than an actual rule.

Wake me up when CMC becomes C.

Some dumb analysis...

Pip came to the Cutie Mark Crusaders for help with his campaign, because he saw that their unity with each other would show that he had some solid support behind him?

Because when the Cutie Mark Crusaders weren't looking for their Cutie Marks, they were typically helping other ponies. Twilight's group might help spread friendship, but the CMC's role is probably helping ponies figure out who they are.

So the show's themes are friendship and identity. Because it helps to know who you are when you want to know who to be around.

These past two seasons have definitely had a strong emphasis on teaching others about friendship.

edited 10th Oct '15 5:23:40 PM by KarkatTheDalek

I'll have to see the episode again, it kinda rushed by me.

I liked the music, and thought it did a good job at meshing with the plot, but I'm probably not going to hear the ened of people saying they aren't good because they're not stand-alone.

Her development was fast, but it worked, and I've always liked the adorable brat, so all in all I liked it.

My cynicism got the best of me. I thought it would be reversed at the last second, or it was a scheme of Starlight's or something. That and losing the wow factor from seeing their Marks kinda bummed me out.

I do hope that the CMC's individual talents get a chance to shine. Weirdly, one minor gripe I had with the episode that I don't think has been mentioned yet is how Pipsqueak kinda gets shoved to the side; he's basically a plot device to put the CMC into conflict with DT. And it works fine, but he kinda gets shafted in terms of characterization.

So the CMC finally got the cutie marks? I would pass my congratulatory remarks but I've been busy patching the floor of my house, again, from their antics a week ago. Hopefully this will be the last time.

Does this mean her full name is "Diamond Tiara Rich"?

No, it's D. Dazzle Tiara. Or maybe that's her rapper name.

I gotta say, this image has me really worried for the fate of the CMC now that they've just gotten their Cutie Marks.

Hey there guys. How are y'all doin' now?

I'm watching Two Best Friends Play play Guacamelee, other than that nothing special.

AJ's parents were confirmed dead in Apple Family Reunion. If you're going to willfully misinterpert that as them just being on the worlds longest vacation, then this episode doesn't change anything. They still haven't explicitly been confirmed dead, and they were implicitly confirmed dead several seasons ago.

Nobody is still here from literally the start of the thread. I think the closest is Lalaei 2000, who IIRC was 3rd post in the thread and has posted again a couple times, but has never been active. But there are several people from the early days of the thread still here including Kegisak and myself.

It's not my fault he's so overpowered and there's so many random encounters. The main reason is because I've done a ton of accidental grinding due to going to exploring or getting stuck or not being sure where to go. And ever since he got Rising Pheonix, Sabin is simply the fastest way to end fights, so I always keep him in the party. It's basically the Pokemon effect I mentioned earlier. Normaly when you play Pokemon, you end up with a single Pokemon strong enough to sweep every fight that just keeps getting more and more XP while everyone else ends up too low level to contribute.

Final Fantasy 6: Previously: Gau has the most pathetic family reunion ever. Sabin reminsces about his family and then sneaks into bed while everyone else is sleeping.

It occured to me that Sabin always wandering off when you enter Figaro Castle and the guards preventing you from going to the sides and telling you to take a rest is basically meant to railroad you to seeing that cutscene. It's just that I didn't have Edgar before so I couldn't.

I wonder if Dragon Neck is going to start testing for performance enhancing espers once his collosseum opens.

Figured out where I went wrong and actually made it to the right Mobilz this time.

Young Lad has another letter. Sabin doesn't mention that he actually met Lola in person.

It feels silly to bother with all this pigeon post stuff when the Blackjack could get there faster. Oh well.

Ok, now what?

Nothing new with Dragon Neck.

Is there even any point to the altitude up and down commands for the airship? I would have guessed that a 3d obstacle course was coming up but I don't think the tech can handle it.

I really love how the airship lets you go everywhere fast without fighting 8 million random encounters. I guess this also means Sabin won't be so ridiculously overleveled any more. Though he still has to go through all the mandatory fights in dungeons.

Lola is impressed that Young Lad sent her a potion. Look, I have 99 potions and 97 hi potions, plus a bunch of tents, pheonix downs, and other random crap. Why don't you tell me what you want and I'll hand it to you while I'm here?

There's a pigeon on the roof of Lola's house, which is a nice touch.

Just noticed this random island in the upper left corner of the world map. There don't appear to be any locations on it though.

Also, it has the world's most pathetic random encounters. Leaf bunnies? Terra was fighting those off back in chapter 1.

Doma Castle's still off limits. I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to go to Narshe, but I might as well check everything else first.

There's a performance underway at the Opera House.

Apparently Guardian is now blocking the entrance to Vector. Narshe it is.

There's now a ghost in Adventurer School in case I forgot how espers work.

We just don't have enough troops to storm the empire. Sabin: Don't worry, I can storm it by myself.

Oddly, the way I'm playing Sabin seems to be his canon personality. He's very hotheaded and eager to fight the empire.

Oh now I'm supposed to get past the Imperial Observation Post. I wonder if that has become possible to do yet.

Hey, it's the house with the one locked chest. Well that was weird.

Sabin just swapped out his Ninja gear for a Power Sash. Of course that meanss -1 speed as well.

I wonder where Lone Wolf went. Maybe I shouldn't have stopped to shop before pursuing him.

Luckily, he waited up for me.

Come one step closer and the moogle gets it. Ok *turns to leave*. Apparently I can't leave. At least I can't manage to walk back onto the bridge.

Sabin: If all the moogles in your vacinity jumped off a cliff, would you jump off too?

Lone Wolf: Hell yes.

Sabin is the worlds expert at jumping off cliffs, but I can't seem to figure out how to join them.

The usual strategy of walking up to the edge or pressing A doesn't work.

Incidently, I'm surprised Lone Wolf gave up the treasure without a fight. I thought he would be a boss battle for sure.

Apparently the start menu has a pedometer too. I've taken 51551 steps so far.

I wonder if the golden hairpin can unlock that door. I doubt it. It seems to be ordinary equipment.

You'd think Locke would have known how to open a locked door.

I was thinking about the possibility of Twitch Plays Final Fantasy 6 earlier, and I really think it could work. They'd need democracy for the part where you have to blitz Vargas though. The star room in the Narshe mines seems like it would be a challenge, but TPP handled tougher things than that before.

Back at the Moogleopolis again but nothing seems to have changed. I have no idea what the end point of the Lone Wolf quest is supposed to be.

Oh well, guess I'll try the Imperial Observation Post again then.

Sabin didn't even try... he just told me to go get Terra and then immediately left.

Well at least now I know.

Gave Terra the unicorn. It doesn't have any stat boosts, but Esuna sounds like it might be a useful spell for emergencies.

The door is still locked. Luckily there are no guards, so the staircase on the second floor is probably open now.

Terra now has a Trance ability. It's blued out though.

Time to play "the floor is lava"

Ow.

Oh, I get how it works now.

What does Gil Toss do?

Terra now has the ability to Trace. Apparently it just turns her purple again.

There's this one chest on an island with a broken bridge that I can't get to and it's really bugging me.

Oh, there's a giant switch puzzle here.

It was a Genji Glove. Not like it helps me now though.

Chest with a tent right next to a save point. I see what you did there.

Terra is taking an awful lot of damage here. I've already had to use 9 hi potions.

Terra learned Esuna. Time to give her a more practical esper like, +10% hp.

Terra is level 27 now, btw. That's what, 9 levels gained by standing next to Sabin? I blame the dungeons with obnoxiously high encounter rates.

Who the heck puts an elixer in a chest? ... oh wait.

Terra keeps going before Sabin, which is really annoying. Screw this, he does too much damage anyway. I'm giving him the Hermes Boots.

Ultima Weapon and 2 Magicite shards. I wonder what they do.

I have no idea what I'm doing, so I guess I'll just flick switches at random till I get somewhere.

"We have to keep Kefka busy until Terra slips through the gate" <— Ok, now Sabin is talking to himself. I knew he was kind of dimwitted, but I didn't think he had schizophrenia or wahtever.

I'm guessing the Devs assumed that you'd take more than just Sabin and Terra with you at this point.

Wait, what happens if you only take Terra?

The gate puts some boulders up to make extra sure that Terra doesn't try to open it again. The boulders form a skull shape.

Well this seems like a good place to take a break. Sabin is level 35 now, btw.

Final Fantasy 6: People have said that Sabin isn't supposed to be that strong yet and I don't really see how. I mean sure, some of the levels come from getting lost or sidetracked, but a lot of it seems unavoidable. For example, Vector Factory and Cave to Sealed Gate both have a ton of encounters and are mandatory, and I don't think I dallied more than any first time player who isn't a puzzle genius would. So how do you not have os much XP?

The airship crashes in the desert, thus prompting the Roswell conspiracy theores.

For this leg of the adventure, Sabin will be accompanied by ... Setzer.

Oh boy, guess I'll be traveling by way of random encounter for a while again then.

Returners and Narshe guards in Vector? Did the Espers randomly teleport everyone between cities for the hell of it? Maranda seemed to be normal... I wonder where the Guardian ended up.

Arvind: It was like this when we got here. I swear.

It sounds like Kefka may end up spending the rest of his life behind bars. <— I highly, highly doubt that.

Men should never lust over power they don't have the ability to control... Abacus Finch is ok though because she's female.

Please talk to as many soldiers as you can in 4 minutes? I think I'll just sit here then.

Sabin: Man this is even better than that ghost banquet. And way less creepy.

There are two empty seats at the table. Guess that's for the 3rd and 4th party members.

I recommended pardoning Kefka, but the emperor won't have that.

Gestahl tests Sabin's short term memory. Luckily, it's higher than usual due to the large amount of food present.

The red robed guys want to test Setzer's strength by fighting with him for a few minutes. Well, it's a better choice than Sabin at least.

Sabin obliges by sitting out the battle while Setzer pummels everyone with money. Oddly, the soldiers exclusively attack Sabin. Not that they managed to do more than scrach him.

Ironically, Sabin leveled from the first fight he didn't participate in.

Uh now what? I can't get out and talking to Gestahl and Cid does nothing.

Oh, I have to sit down and start talking again

Sabin remembers General Leo.

And as usual, the rest of the party teleported into the banquet room. And Locke is demanding a spot.

Oh come on, I'm not allowed to bring Sabin, the actually competent bodyguard? Oh well, I'm sure Locke and Terra are tough enough. They did spend a while each standing next to Sabin after all. (They're 23 and 29 respectively. Sabin is 36).

Locke is getting the Genji Glove and Hyperwrist. Let's do this!

Terra's probably better at attacking due to the level advantage but oh well.

Not talking to any soldiers doesn't seem to have had much effect. They're still clearing out of South Figaro.

First sabin less battle. Terra got enranged and one shotted two wasps with her sword. Locke does much less damage despite his favorable relics.

Terra does a lot less damage normally. Must have been a side effect of the rage or something.

205 damage? I forgot how to count that low.

Locke is also getting the +2str Esper.

Off to Tzen to guy a strange glowing stone on the rumor of an NPC.

Man battles take so long now. On the other hand, it means Trance is a useful ability for once.

Well I can't find whoever it was. Back to Albrook then, I guess.

Locke is using the thunderblade by the way. Not sure if I should switch to Air Knife.

He has icebrand in the left hand.

Well the party scene in Albrook has definitely taken a dive.

Well I guess that's it for today.

Mostly just to show off. I pretty much spent the game sitting at the highest altitude, but sometimes descended to get a better look at things. There's one gameplay thing that's affected later by it, but I'll leave you to find that out for yourself.

You won't get enough interest for it, though. There's a channel that's been trying to do that for a while and it gets 3 viewers tops.

You throw money at the enemy and they take damage. I don't remember the FF6 conversion rate, but typically, a given Final Fantasy will have a totally awful rate that's hardly worth it.

It also buffs her. I'll let you figure out what kind of buff.

I believe so and I'm not entirely sure. I don't think it allows you to, but I could be wrong.

This likely has to do with you wandering around Zozo with only two characters. Since all the experience is divided among the surviving party members, you were effectively cramming double the experience into Sabin for that whole section.

Heh, well, since you're done there now: if you talk to enough soldiers, you get extra items.

I believe Berserk causes you to do double damage, so that's why Terra hit so hard. Her schtick is magic, though. The right setup will let her hit the damage cap on certain fights, even in the mid game where no one else will come close. Locke should probably use the Air Knife unless you're backtracking, where the swords might do better against the enemies' lower defenses.

Incidently, I'm surprised Lone Wolf gave up the treasure without a fight. I thought he would be a boss battle for sure.

Well, you just lost a party member. If you had saved the moogle he would have joined the party.

Terra now has a Trance ability. It's blued out though.

Trance ups all of Terra's stats by a pretty good deal. Everytime you win a battle with her in the party, it lets you stay in it longer when you activate it. But activating it drains down time.

Ultima Weapon and 2 Magicite shards. I wonder what they do.

Ultima Weapon deals damage based on the users HP/Max HP ratio. At full health, it does a TON of damage, but that damage goes down as you take damage. The shards, when used as items mimic a random Esper summons.

I'm guessing the Devs assumed that you'd take more than just Sabin and Terra with you at this point.

Umm, yeah its generally assumed you'll take a full party everywhere.

People have said that Sabin isn't supposed to be that strong yet and I don't really see how.

Because most people change out party members, also, pretty sure you get more XP with a smaller party. So levels up faster.

Please talk to as many soldiers as you can in 4 minutes? I think I'll just sit here then.

Well you lost out on one of them most epic and famous Kefka speeches.

Not talking to any soldiers doesn't seem to have had much effect. They're still clearing out of South Figaro.

If you had talked to them, you would have gotten more stuff.

You won't get enough interest for it, though. There's a channel that's been trying to do that for a while and it gets 3 viewers tops.

I meant in the hypothetical alternate world where the streamer chose FF 6 instead of Pokemon. Obviously nowadays the novelty has worn off so there won't be many people.

You throw money at the enemy and they take damage. I don't remember the FF 6 conversion rate, but typically, a given Final Fantasy will have a totally awful rate that's hardly worth it.

Wait, that actually costs you money? I thought that was just for flavor. Oh well, it's not like I have anything better to do with my GIL.

Since all the experience is divided among the surviving party members

Wait, really? This whole time I thought it gave the whole amount of XP to every party member. No wonder Sabin was leveling so fast!!!

if you talk to enough soldiers, you get extra items.

When do you get items? Is it that part at the end where they told me they were withdrawing from South Figaro?

Locke should probably use the Air Knife unless you're backtracking, where the swords might do better against the enemies' lower defenses.

Ok. Wonder if it's too late to buy a second air knife. It's actually so confusing because the Equip Optimze button makes dumb choices. Like ditching air knife in this case.

When do you get items? Is it that part at the end where they told me they were withdrawing from South Figaro?

Yeah, if you had talked to enough guards, there would have been more things after that, some o hem giving you items. Also goes by your responses to the questions too I believe.

And the Optimize just goes with best pure stats, it never accounts for weapon special features

edited 10th Oct '15 7:00:24 PM by Seraphem

Well, you just lost a party member. If you had saved the moogle he would have joined the party.

Oh. Well crap. I figured Mog was going to be joining the party, but I didn't realize you could lose him like that.

Well you lost out on one of them most epic and famous Kefka speeches.

What happens? Is there a video I should watch?

Also goes by your responses to the questions too I believe.

Well I picked the nicest or most forgiving option at every opportunity. I even suggested toasting the Empire.

Not sure if fighting the soldiers at dinner cost me anything.

OOC: When I get the chance, I should compare my play through of FF 6 to yours Story. I think I left off just before the dinner scene. If I recall, none of my characters had broken the 1000 HP threshold, which basically means my characters are <25. Granted, your play style is nothing like mine, so comparing might be pointless.

edited 10th Oct '15 7:11:59 PM by OrionAurora