Tokyo Ghoul: √A Ghoulish Comparison

If you’re a fan of anime, there’s a lot of titles that you just know. Naruto. Bleach. Attack on Titan. But there’s one that has become a common household name that I had personally never expected. Tokyo Ghoul.

I’ve been a fan of Tokyo Ghoul since right around the beginning of the anime. It began simulcasting through Funimation during the summer season in 2014, with a second season, Tokyo Ghoul √A, making its appearance in January of the next year. Days after finishing the first season, I delved straight into the manga, which in turn, destroyed my ability to stop reading the manga.

If you’ve read the manga, you know where I’m about to go with this. If you haven’t, be warned, there are spoilers beyond this point.

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The first season of Tokyo Ghoul ends in the middle of an incredible climax and a decision Kaneki has made, which leads into yet another decision at the beginning of season two. Ken Kaneki has come to terms with who he is, allowing himself to be consumed by the ghoul within him. As season two begins, he’s made the decision to join the very people that tortured him past the brink of death and back again. Which… doesn’t really seem to make any sense once you’ve read the manga.

Kaneki makes his decision. Kaneki allows the ghoul inside of him to reign. But what holds significance is the choice Kaneki makes once he’s out of the walls of Aogiri. He leaves, but it’s not with Aogiri. It’s with his own group that comes together to try and take down Aogiri because Kaneki can see exactly why Aogiri isn’t the right choice. It’s pretty much plain as day here.

This is the main issue with the anime, but there are plenty of others. Side characters are treated two-dimensionally, whereas in the manga they’re given so many details to flesh them out; important plot points in the manga are still left in the anime, without any explanation. Kaneki was treated as a mystery the entirety of season two, but he was given so much character development during this arc in the manga that it’s almost unfair. And of course, let’s not forget the most important scene in the manga that was left out so that the anime would be left with a cliffhanger. Kaneki’s final, decisive battle against Kishou Arima.

The Tokyo Ghoul anime is a train wreck, to put it plain and simple.

So let’s talk about Sui Ishida for a moment. The author behind the manga. The way he writes his stories. The tarot numbers he throws into the manga to tell you where the story is going to go. The hints within the first chapters of Tokyo Ghoul, that continue into the manga’s continuation, Tokyo Ghoul :Re. The incredible characterization of more than just Kaneki, but Juuzou Suzuya and Karen Von Rosewald.

I’ll end it here, but to put it simply: if you’ve watched the anime, trust me and the entire fandom when I say: please read the manga. It’s some of the most incredible storytelling you’ll ever read and it will pull you in faster than the anime did.

& A quick PSA: the changes in the anime happen right around chapter 65.

Final Fantasy VIII: How to get the LionHeart Gunblade on DISC ONE!!!

I Know what you are thinking:

“I want that LionHeart ASAP! FINAL WEAPON WOOOOOO!!!!!”

Well I’m here to tell you that you can get it as soon as you leave Timber heading for Galabadia Garden.

"How is this possible?!"

So, for starters, here is what we are going to be needing to make the Lion Heart.

1 Adamantine

4 Dragon Fang

12 Pulse Ammo

Now, this is a long a rather tedious process, as we are going to be playing a TON of Triple Triad to farm Elnoyle cards. We will be doing this first as we do not want to start accidently leveling up the party just yet.

Triple Triad; this is by far my personal favorite mini game/side quest in the history of EVER! The rules are rather simple and if you can’t figure out how to play it GTFO (JK I’ll be making a Triple Triad guide soon just for you lovely people).

OK so here’s the plan, you get your first set of 7 cards from the dude on the Bridgeway to the classrooms on the second floor of Balamb Garden as soon as you have the hallway train wreck with Selphie. Just talk to him and he will give you a general run down of the game, which Is more than enough information to play around Garden.

“OK, now I have the cards, what the fuck do I do now?!”

Good for you, now take the elevator down to the ground floor and start harassing your fellow students to play cards. The one you really want to play against is the young boy wearing a blue and white striped shirt. He is found jogging around the central pillar. He has the “MiniMog” card. We want this to make future farming games.

That little punk in the blue short sleeved shirt right there

Now chances are you will have to play him several times before he decided to do the right thing and play the damn card. When he runs off the screen, just move to the elevator screen and back to the main one.

“OK I have the stupid MiniMog, now what?”

Gratz Bra! Now you’re going to head off to the cafeteria. If you don’t know where that is, you might want to start explaining how Squall has lived in the Garden for so long without knowing where the damn food is.  No seriously, check the map board thing. It’s in the picture above, right there where those teenage hormones are standing.

Ok, now that we are in the cafeteria, move on the second screen and challenge either of the dudes at the front right table to a card game.

The two fuckwits there on the right

They have Quistis’ card. There is also a third Quisty Fan-boy in a place that I can’t remember because I never play against him. Again you may have to play several games before they cough it up. I’ve had runs where I’ve played these douchebags for 30 straight before they gave it up.

“OK Quistis Obtained! Now what?”

SWEET! Now go save your friggen game. If you lose either MiniMog or Quistis to the next player you can just restart from the save.

OK SAVED!

Now head to the infirmary! We will now be relentlessly harassing Doctor Kadawaki. Because no one gives a rat’s ass if a student is sick, PLAY ME BITCH!

Ok, she plays the Elnoyle Card, we want a minimum of 20 of these little buggers!

Why 20 you ask?

Because 10 Elnoyle cards refine into 1 Energy Crystal, and one energy crystal refines into 10 PULSE AMMO *ding ding ding*

Obtaining these 20 cards is going to be the longest part of the entire process, it beats out any grinding and story arch time combined. It usually takes 100-150 games with her to get all the cards that are needed.

“OK, That fucking sucked, but I got them *heavy breathing* now what?”

HOLY SHIT!!! YOU’RE STILL HERE???!!! Determined little monkey aren’t you. OKIE DOKIE, moving right along.

TIME OUT!!! Here we can split the path. One Path is faster (time actually spent) and the enemies stay at a relatively decent level for the point in the game. The other requires quite a bit of grinding outside of Balamb Garden and the enemies will be massively Over Powered for your current equipment, but you will get the LionHeart earlier in the Story. Continue reading and decide for yourself which you would prefer to do.   TIME IN!!!

On to the Dragon Fangs! Dragon Fangs are dropped primarily by Blue Dragons, but we don’t exactly have any of those on hand at this stage of the game now do we? So what is a crazy gamer to do? Well there are two options at this point; you can keep you level average below 19 and farm Grendels in the forests outside Timber (if you’re going to do this press ctrl+f and type [GRNDLHNT])     OOOORRRRRR option 2…. T-Rexaurs….. yeah have fun with this one.  T-Rexaurs drop Dragon Fangs when they are between the level’s of 20-29. So keeping this in mind, lets progress the story a little bit! Go do the Fire Cavern!

“Ok, DONE!”

Sweet! Equip Ifrit, and start wandering around the Training facility ASAP, the T-rexaurs are more often encountered on the left path. As you fight you will not only level up, but so will the MoBs. (yay level average). So when your average level is in the above range start killing the t-rexaurs. Don’t forget to have someone constantly casting sleep on them.

“OK, GOT THEM! Are we almost done?”

NOPE….. Well….. Kinda…

Now we get to actually play the story line. Just play through like normal making sure to keep your level average somewhere around 30, come back and see me when we are leaving Timber.

“OK, WE’RE LEAVING! Are you coming or not?”

Well, butt-munch, if you want the friggen gunblade you’ll wait for me, won’t’cha!?

Ok, I’m ready.
I was eating hot-dogs.

Ok, time for a long mothafuckin’ walk son! But before we go; do you want it now? Or can you wait through a bit more story?

To get The Lion Heart NOW Continue reading from here

To sit through some more story press {ctrl+f} and type [MINTOMB]

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You are a greedy one aren’t you? Or just can’t wait another hour or so. Either way, off we go!

We are heading for the beach just south of Dollet.

Don’t Question me, just do it!

Here you will encounter the Adamantoise. It’s a giant armored turtle. Trust me, you can’t miss them, they are that obvious. When these pre-soup monstrosities are level 30+ They drop the Adamantine you need for the LionHeart (among other things) farm for as many as you want, you will have an easier opportunity to get 10 a bit later on though. HEY you’re the one who wanted to do this the hard way, not me! Once you have as many as you want (minimum 1 for the LionHeart) we now go through the check list.

“Do I have adamantine?”
Yes (move on) 
No (wtf I just told you where to farm them dude get to it!)

“Has Ifrit learned Ammo-RF?”
Yes (move on to question 6.) 
No (see question 3)

“Is Ifrit Level 10?”
Yes (next question)
 No (start leveling him up right frikken NOW)

“Has Quetzequotl learned CardMOD?”
 Yes (next question)
No (learn it NOW)

“Have I modded the 20 Elnoyle cards into 2 Energy Crystals?”
 Yes (Good Job. Next)
No (do it with CardMOD)

“Have the Energy Crystals Been refined into 20 Pulse Ammo with Ammo-RF?”
Yes (SWEET Next)
No (do that)

“Did I get the Dragon Fangs from the T-rexaur?”
Yes (THANK GOD that would have sucked if….)
No (dude you just wrecked the whole thing. Now you gotta wait until you get back to Balamb Garden to get them on DISC 2!)

Now that that’s out of the way I’m presuming because you haven’t rage quit yet that you have all the mats you need. SWEET! Let’s head back to Timber, and make the LionHeart!

BAM!!

You did it!

Congratz, you just made the game stupid hard, because you did all that grinding, at least you have Squall’s final weapon as a consolation.
That’s something at least...

[GRNDLHNT]

So you have opted to not grind like a beast to get your Dragon Fangs from the dastardly Sharp Tooth, huh.  That’s fine, doing this will ultimately be the less time consuming method of obtaining the LionHeart. Mind you, you will be acquiring it a little bit later game wise.

“OK I have the stupid cards, now what?”

Nothing, you continue the story like a normal play through BUT make sure you’re levels do not exceed 19 for any character. This means you might have to run from a few battles, and that’s ok.  Come find me again when we’re leaving Timber.

…..

“OK WE’RE LEAVING! Are you coming or not?”

Well, butt-munch, if you want the friggen gunblade you’ll wait for me, won’t’cha!?

Ok, so now that we’re leaving make like we’re progressing the story and go through the first Dream World Scenario.

Ok, now we hunt the Grendel….

For their teeth….

Now the particular kind of Grendel we are looking for are the baby Grendels. They look exactly the same as the adults the only difference is that they are levels 1-19 and if you were paying attention your average should be there as well. If not, you be screwed.  Now gather 4 of them.

“OK I knocked the teeth out of some baby Grendels, now what?”

YOU VIOLENT BASTARD!!!!!
Beating a baby dragon for its chompers….. that’s just heartless.

But it had to be done.
Now progress the story until you reach the Tomb of the Unknown King. Before you enter the Tomb: 

WAIT

“Has Ifrit learned Ammo-RF?”
Yes (move on to question3 ) 
No (see question 2)

“Is Ifrit Level 10?”
Yes (next question 1)
No (start leveling him up right frikken NOW)

“Does Ifrit have the option to learn Ammo-RF in the list?”
Yes(Go learn it)
No (see question 2)

“Has Quetzequotl learned CardMOD?”
Yes (next question)
No (learn it NOW)

“Have I modded the 20 Elnoyle cards into 2 Energy Crystals?”
Yes (GJ next)
No (do it with CardMOD)

“Have the Energy Crystals Been refined into 20 Pulse Ammo with Ammo-RF?”
Yes (SWEET Next)
No (do that)

“Did I get the Dragon Fangs from the Grendels?”
Yes (THANK GOD that would have sucked if….)
No (dude you just wrecked the whole thing. Now you gotta wait until you get back to Balamb Garden to get them on DISC 2 from the T-Rexaurs!)

[MINTOMB]

Ok Now that those are all taken care of I’m going to presume that because you’re still here that everything has gone as planned and you have everything for the LionHeart minus the Adamantine. We will now enter the Tomb of the Unknown King, after you get the Student ID for the General; just keep going deeper into the tomb. This is not a full walkthrough and I will not be going into how to get around this hellish maze here, but I will give you the major clue that the camera is ALWAYS fixed behind the Party, and check the map often.

There are 2 boss fights here, one is with a mentally challenged oaf of a minotaur named Minotaur….

 Wait what?

That’s a real fucking original name…. (don’t worry the other one’s not much better). Once you kick his butt he runs away to find his “big brother”  You must now follow him and fight Minotaur and his big brother Sacred (a midget minotaur with a Napoleon Complex). Once the battle is over GTFO, heal and save like your life depended on it.

“OK DONE”

DUDE! Midget Minotaur is a mean little guy… HAAAAA little guy… *gigglesnort*

OK, we’re on the last step here, pay super close attention to this part…

Use the CardMOD ability learned from Quetzaqotl on MINOTAUR’s card, not SACRED’s.  Then head into Deling City, and hit the weapon shop upgrade the gun blade, and BAM you have the LionHeart on Disc 1! And you did it without making the game super difficult by opting to NOT beast mode grind for levels! Have fun with this awesome weapon earlier than it’s usually acquired.

NOW, HURRY! GO SAVE!

"Who Is the Doom Marine?" A DOOM background/lore overview. **SPOILERS**

Hello fellow gamers!
In this installment, we’re going to discuss the protagonist in Doom, a game that looks like a reboot of the classic games. In the original games, the Doom Marine (Doomguy) was intended to be You! Yes you, staring at this screen. You are the guy who went through literal Hell and back. You’re actually kind of a badass and you didn’t know it. In the reboot, however, you play the Doom Marine, who isn’t you. You’re still a badass though.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

That guy, you play that guy.

He’s known by a few names, the Doom Marine, the Doom Slayer, the Hell Walker, the Unchained Predator. They all tell their own pretty tale about how well-liked he is in Hell.

He’s not.

Now, you may be wondering where such a man came from. The Codex entries in Doom tells us everything we need to know about him! If you can find them, that is. The first comes up near the beginning of the game, titled, appropriately, The Doom Marine. The UAC went on an expedition to Hell and found a sarcophagus, a discovery they labelled DM1-5, but the scientists gave the man inside the moniker ‘Doom Marine.’ A discovery in the same expedition, the book of Daeva, depicted the Doom Marine, in his Praetor Suit, fighting demons as a hooded figure looked on.

We also find another Codex entry titled The Praetor Suit early on, which tells us that the suit he wears is impervious to damage, but the scientists were unable to activate it. The catalyst to activate the suit was likely the Doom Marine himself, which we prove by putting it on at the beginning of the game. The suit itself is not what makes the Doom Marine a badass, however. As we find powerups throughout the game, we discover that he can survive things that would kill a normal human. The Codex entry for the Haste buff tells us that, when a normal person is subjected to the Soul-Breaker energy, it greatly increases their speed, but inevitably leads to myocardial rupture, the heart literally exploding. The Doom Marine isn’t even adversely affected by this.

No comment

Later on, after reaching Hell, we find runes that update our Codex, telling us the Slayer’s Testament, which is the exploits of the Doom Slayer, from a demon’s point of view. Which demon, however, is unclear. The first portion of the Slayer’s Testament tells us that in the First Age, a man stood, and chose a path of perpetual torment, and this man finds no peace because of his unending hatred. He was a member of the Night Sentinels, and those who fought him called him the Doom Slayer.

In the second Testament entry, we discover the other names he’s called, the Hell Walker, the Unchained Predator, and he was the only one able to take those names, and the only non-demon to traverse Hell as he did, cutting a path of diabolical cruelty in his wake. The third Testament tells us that he did all of that unaided, and *then* he was blessed by the seraphim (angels?) with great power and speed. He went to the Blood Temples and destroyed the obsidian pillars. He shows no pity for the minions of hell, and was unbreakable, incorruptible. And he was on a warpath to bring Hell down. The fourth Testament tells us he left broken bodies and souls of demons in his wake for *eons* according the demons. Every battle brought the servants of Hell more terror, and his name was spoken with fear. He drew power from killing demons, and he always came for them.

*This* is his vacation spot.

The fifth Testament says that no other had been able to stand before the horde, other than the Doom Slayer, but now, the demons, too, had a champion. The Great One, the Titan, those were its names, and it brought the fight to the Doom Slayer with the fury of every demon he had left dead in his path. The Titan was still no match for the Doom Slayer, and was felled. The sixth Testament brings to light a heresy amongst the demons, a betrayer that adorned the Doom Slayer in great armor (likely the Praetor Suit) that was wrought in Hell’s forges, impervious to damage. Because he needed more help. The seventh Testament details the Doom Slayer’s capture. Even after destroying the Titan, he was insatiable. He sought the tombs in Blood Keep, where the priests of Hell had laid a trap, capturing him in a cursed sarcophagus, and leaving the mark of the Hell Walker on the tomb, as a warning to all of Hell to never let him escape.

Which brings us back to the first Codex entries. The UAC can’t read the writing of Hell, apparently, and set him free, and gave him his Praetor Suit, so he could go on the rampage called Doom.

In short, the Doom Marine is a man, fueled by the death of demons, striking fear in the hearts of the servants of Hell, captured and held for god only knows how long, alive and awake the whole time, then released, and given some pretty big guns, into a world starting to be overrun by demons.

In every visceral, mindless rampage, there is a story to be told, it seems.

Game of Thrones Season 6 Episode 6 "Blood of My Blood" recap (SPOILERS!!!!)

This post is super duper spoiler-y!!!

So if you haven't seen episode 6 "Blood of My Blood" yet and don't want spoilers:
 LOOK AWAY!!!

AVERT THINE EYES!!!!

RUN FAR, FAR AWAY AND DON'T LOOK BACK!!!

RUN YOU CLEVER BOY AND REMEMBER!!!

wait.... wrong fandom...

awkward...
Anyway...
Moving on...

Sunday's episode had a lot of interesting twists and turns!!! 

Who saw Tommen Baratheon and Margaery Baratheon (Tyrell) joining up with the high sparrow coming? I mean... I, personally, figured Margaery would but I never thought Tommen would join as well! Let's hear it for that awkward moment when Jaime Lannister showed up with an army claiming to represent the king... Who just so happened to be in the sept getting his religion on and came out to reveal that he was indeed on the side of the religious bird-man.

They probably should have checked on the whereabouts of their golden-haired baby-king before storming the Sept "in his name"...

Wait...What is going on?

So that happened and now the separation of church and state is crushed like sparrow's egg between the thighs of the Zangief of religions.

Meanwhile, way up north where the air is cold and the true heroes hold the door (sorry.. I know... It still hurts), Bran Stark and Meera Reed are freezing. Meera collapses on the forest floor and shuffles her way through the snow to Bran who (finally) pops out of warg mode and tells her that the white walkers have found them.
What the shit, Bran?!



Well, right when you think that Bran's story-line is going to come to a quick, pointless, and stupid ending, a mysterious hooded stranger rides in on horseback and sends those icy bastards back to where they belong! But wait... Who is this crazy awesome ice-zombie killer?
None other than Benjen Stark!!!

Where the heck have you been, man?!?
Oh, right. You've been almost turned into a white walker and then saved from that horrible, icy fate. Well, welcome back, Benjen! I am loving how all of these Starks are just popping up out of the snow like daisies!

Moving to a warmer location:

Arya Stark messed up AGAIN! She finally got a second chance to kill someone and become a faceless man (woman?). Jaqen H'ghar tells her that it is her last chance and that either way the many faced god will gain a face. So what does she do? She decides to grow a conscious and saves the person she was going to kill! 

Does this mean that the faceless men are after her now?

Probably.

Does she care?

Not one bit.

 

Bonus: Needle is back and the Stark family has (re)gained one more member!

Continuing on our journey to warmer lands: We have Daenerys Targaryen travelling through the desert with all of her new/regained Dothraki followers. Here she stops the whole dang caravan to prove to us that she didn't take the time to plan things out completely.

"How many ships will I need?"

"Who has that many ships?"

"No one? Well, I will just have to wing it."

These are... Not direct quotes but it sums up the whole conversation she has with Daario Naharis before she disappears and leaves everyone behind twiddling their thumbs.

On the bright side, after she has been gone for quite some time (long enough for Daario to tell everyone he is going to prance off to find her) she returns on the back of her largest and favorite dragon, Drogon! 

Just look at how big that little baby has grown!

In this moment we were all proud mommies and daddies.

Then, of course, Daenerys gives a power speech while sitting atop her scaly, fire-breathing baby and rallies all of the Dothraki with a glorified version of "I don't have a favorite child, I love you all in different ways and for different reasons". To which the Dothraki all responded, "Yay! Mommy loves me!"

Now, while all of this motivational speaking,dragon riding, white walker slaying, and religious conversion  is going on, my favorite story was developing. Samwell Tarly has brought Gilly to his family's home, Horn Hill. In the carriage we are audience to some talk about the greenery, the country, and the fact that he forgot to mention that his father is very anti-wildling... Like, there is Hitler-level hatred going on here. (Ooops!)

There we are greeted by Sam's loving and welcoming mother, Melessa Tarly, (who seems stoked to be a grandmother) and his overly chatty younger sister, Talla Tarly, who is going to soon be married off to someone she doesn't seem too fond of. She, however, makes immediate friends with Gilly and sweeps her away to a bath and a new wardrobe!

Cut to dinner!

Everyone is there: Randyll Tarly (Sam's father) , Melessa, Talla, Dickon (Sam's younger brother), Samwell, and Gilly!

Samwell's father punctuates his insults (aimed at none other than our gentle Sam) with small bites of food as he glares so hard his eyes almost completely shut. Eventually Gilly can't stand his bullying any longer and starts telling Randyll off and casually letting slip that she is from north of the wall. At this point, Randyll turns his insults and hate-glare at her. He then directs her attention to the Valerian steel sword hanging up on the wall and informs her that it is called "Heartsbane" and that Samwell is SUPPOSED to inherit it but he won't... like...ever.

Sam's mother says something like, "You don't need help making an ass out of yourself" and drags Gilly and Talla out of the dining hall. When the ladies have left Randyll tells Sam that he will house Gilly and little baby Sam (who is, by the way, super adorable). He will have her work in the kitchen under the condition that Sam leaves at first light. 

Sam makes his way to Gilly's room to apologize and say goodbye. After a conversation that tears at your heart strings and Sam telling Gilly (through him choking back tears) to say goodbye to little Sam for him, he leaves the room and you are left with this feeling of, "WHY?!? NO!!! STAY WITH HER!!!".

That scene goes on for what seems like ages...

Until BOOM!

In bursts Sam telling Gilly to pack her things. (And Gilly pointing out that she has no things to pack.) He tells her that they are leaving and then it cuts to the three of them in the dining hall where Sam is, *GASP*, stealing Heartsbane! Gilly asks what will happen if Randyll tries to come after the sword (and them in the process) to which Sam replies, "Let him try."

Does this mean he is going to start his own house with the help of Jon and the wildlings? Is he just showing some teenager-like rebellion? Is he trying to step up and be a man for his little namesake?

Do you have a theory of what is to come? Do you just want to gush about all of the awesomeness in this episode? Do you just want to say, "Hi"? Leave a comment! We will respond!