I think the battle sprites look amazing, but in the field, the details on the models get squished into too few pixels, and it’s a jarring juxtaposition against the beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds. I can remember some reviewers sharing my opinion at the time, but you might be right that calling it ugly is a bit much.

Original VII is great how it is. I was happy to have an alternate telling for the remakes.

Unlike VII, VIII has always been ugly and needs a graphical upgrade to match their over ambitious models for the hardware. Also needs a combat overhaul so it’s not so super easy, and draw is not so tedious.

Tactics original is pretty, but could use some QoL updates.

I’d buy that for a dollar!

(that guy is 100% the Robocop version of Trump)

It’s mostly supply and demand. In Tokyo and Osaka / satellite cities, prices are going up, everywhere else they are dirt cheap.

However, in urban areas prices still aren’t as crazy unaffordable as you may think, because Japan has a very narrow wage gap (everyone in Japan thinks they are middle class, and their not wrong compared to other countries).

Another thing that makes Japan different to other housing markets, and is affected by the laws, is earthquake concerns. What other countries would call ‘established’ dwellings, they call ‘second hand’. Laws are updated every ten years or so that mean newer dwellings are much safer than older ones. Knockdown/rebuild is so common that there is competitive prices, as there’s plenty of builders to choose from. The builders are also very efficient, and apart from safety law, regulations are low (you can build whatever you like, so long as it’s robust), so labour costs are much lower compared to other countries.

If you go on Suumo.jp you’ll find plenty of very affordable houses, even in good areas/good rail links, but it’s because they don’t expect anyone will live in the house as-is - the buyer will most likely “reform” it (massive rennovation) or replace.

The state of the Japanese housing market is due mostly to cultural/economic/low immigration. If you want a policy solution other high-income countries can use to solve housing issues, the state-capitalism solution of the Singapore HDB is the best model I’ve come across. Second would probably be Vienna’s focus on social housing.

You’ve triggered my working with GameCube/Wii through Cygwin PTSD.

most inkjets clog like a motherfucker when not in use.

If you have an inkjet printer, even an expensive one, you have to leave it plugged in and in standby mode so it can do it’s regular cleaning cycle.

A good middle-range inkjet printer (like a Canon MB2700) can be economical and durable; unfortunately most people’s experience of inkjet are the ultra-cheap ones sold in big-box stores, sold at a loss, to sell over-priced cartridges, and not left plugged in/don’t have cleaning cycles.

Depends on where you’re talking about. In Australia the right wing are using nuclear as a diversion to slow down the transition to renewables, so they can stay on gas and coal longer.

There’s no nuclear power in Australia, and the time needed to create the industry, train or poach workers, create a plant and get it up and running makes no environmental or economical sense compared to what they are already set to achieve with wind, solar and storage.

If you’ve already got nuclear up and running, use it, but each new plant needs to be compared to the alternatives for that specific location, and the track record of the nuclear industry and government in that location.

Not at all, we’re all just being jackassed :).

Here’s a fun video essay on the craziness that is Falun gong and the Epoch Times if you want to go further down the rabbit hole: https://youtu.be/ncr62WQnIHA?si=XsIoYofM9wJK7Pwk

By age eight, he had acquired “the superb great law with supernatural powers,” which was supposed to include invisibility, levitation, etc. Li Hongzhi

There’s enough provable atrocities being committed by the Chinese govt to worry about the conspiracy theories as well. Especially when a lot of the body and organ harvest theories are spread by a California mansion dwelling homophobic cult leader who can totally levitate he just doesn’t have to prove it to you!

Call it “Xubmarine 420” and tell him he invented it. I think he’d take that bait.

Maybe if they go through with that change to kneecap extensions

They got rid of extensions on mobile years ago. From a features point of view that’s enough for me to never use Chrome on mobile or desktop. Having Firefox sync between my three devices, and having adblock on mobile, is such a QOL improvement.