Dixavd

Utada Hikaru's new album "Hatsukoi" is one of the most beautifully mastered albums I have ever heard. I had high expectations going into this album and I'm honestly blown away*. I couldn't even buy the high bit-rate version outside Japan, so this is just listening to the iTunes version. It's especially annoying that I can't share her music other than this short-version snippet of the title track and link to the iTunes' page for tasters (unsurprising though).

When I heard the new Kingdom Hearts 3 track, "Chakai" ("Don't Think Twice" in the English version), during all those trailers, I thought it sounded lovely but not outstanding. I am so happy to find out she's taken greater risks and massively focused on memorable hooks and arrangements. She has truly mastered blending American R&B with Japanese ballads. Plus, while she only sings in English and Japanese on this record, she's clearly learnt some ways to emphasise words from Spanish and French lines.

My favourite tracks include: the determined "Forevermore" (which seems to be an uplifting response to her previous album, "Fantome"), the hook of "Good Night" which sounds lifted directly from the best Swedish-written pop-blockbusters of the last decade (which is great if you're not sick of these sorts of playful extended syllables), and finally "Shittosarerubeki Jinesei" which may be the most immaculately produced song she's ever released.

Now I just need to figure out how to get the high bit-rate version for myself..

*There is one track I absolutely hate, "Too Proud", but that's because it features Jevon, a British rapper, and I cannot stand listening to my own accent rapping over a song (so I’ll never like it)

"Actives" (shortened from "Interactive)

I genuinely think the fact that "game" is in the title holds the medium back.

❤Sparky❤ We all believe in you. I know that you've taken time away from social media lately, so I haven't spoken to you in a while, but I look forward to our next chat. You can get through this!

I haven't played online yet since I'm not used to the controls. I've never played a Mario Tennis game (or even a Tennis video game since I was a pre-teen!) so the ontrols don't feel very intuitive. It seems like it could be fun but I'm truly atrocious at it and keep getting beaten by the COMs. My biggest issue seems to be that I always double tap buttons (something about the wind-up time on the animations doesn't register to me fast enough) so I keep accidentally doing that risky jump move when I don't mean to.

I resisted posting in this thread because I wanted it to stay as a place where those who were distraught could mourn. It seems this thread has developed further than that though so I thought it was important to say something. This is less aimed at those in this thread, and more towards lurkers reading it (as I doubt those actually doing this are visible in this thread):

It's important for those in mourning to have a space to leave their condolences but it's also important for those who were hurt because of him to be able to say so in peace. Neither side existing actually hurts the other so long as they aren't actively searching for each other and confronting them. If you, the person reading this, are one of the people actively searching for anything negative people are saying about TB: I want you to take a second and think about what you're doing. People should respect your grief for losing a person important to you. You should respect others who feel bittersweet relief because the cause of their abuse is gone. Don't go searching for them and definitely don't send them abuse. I've seen way too much of that this weekend (including myself, when I merely answered someone's question about why some people describe him as toxic - I wasn't even talking about my opinion and I got people searching through Twitter to harass me for it).

Again, this wasn't directed to anyone specifically in this thread, but this thread has got a lot of views so I find it likely some of those people are reading this - and I hope I can change the minds of just one person to stop searching for people to insult.

Now on to my complicated feelings (partly for clarity so you know my bias). I am sad that he's passed as I truly believe he had the best intentions at heart, however, I'm conflicted on his legacy because the truth is that his actions directly lead to the lives of people online (including myself) being worse. I don't resent him for it, but I understand those who do (especially those who were sent death threats). He was a role model for me a decade ago but ultimately his actions hurt me and I couldn't continue to follow him. My sister still loved his work though (she listens to every Co-Optional podcast for instance), so I am well aware of how much he improved over time. I respected him but I wished he was better at holding his temper and actually listening to people: even as late as Hellblade's and Battlefront 2's releases last year, he was making the same mistakes. It's just all so sad. If it wasn't for this damn cancer, I truly think he would have learned how to deal with the brand that he created and would have turned a mixed legacy into a completely positive one. It's sad to know that that's never going to happen now. I feel terrible for his family and friends, but especially Genna and his son: I hope they have the support they need.

Just when I thought Eurovision was done with the casual racism (and being pleasantly surprised how many non-white acts there were this year), the one act which was overtly racist won. I genuinely can't believe this song even made it on stage: they made a song out of the fact they think the Japanese word for stupid, "baka", sounds like a chicken noise so the singer proceeds to imitate Japanese apperance while making chicken noises and dance. She stands in front of a wall of lucky cats and sings about Pikachu in part of the song. I know the song is about female empowerment to not get walked all over by "stupid boys" but why couldn't they have done it without all the Asian stereotypes.

@zirilius: He's finished archiving all of the streams to his youtube channel now. The order of the original streams are:

• Friday 6 hour stream of Mobius Final Fantasy: here.
• Saturday 13 hour stream of Final Fantasy XIII: Part 1 and Part 2.
• Sunday 5 hour stream of Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster (Will and Last Mission): here.
• Sunday 1 hour and 45 mins of Final Fantasy XIII: here.

Also, for anyone catching up, the donation page is still available: donate here. ❤️

I donated because I'm excited for the stream and want to (and can) support. But I want to make clear that I am against eating terrible food (and even using the threat of doing so otherwise as a reason to donate). Don't get sick @zombiepie

Here's the montage that was shown in the meeting by the way: (Dan's clip is at 0:56)

Here's Dan's video from his YouTube channel from 2015/pre-Giant Bomb: (this particular clip occurs at 0:51)

I am so excited for more music from Utada. Fantome was a phenomenal return after her hiatus and I loved the snippet of the songs we heard here... Also, yeah I'll play Kingdom Hearts 3 when it's out.

After seeing Marluxia in this trailer, I fell down a huge rabbit hole of which characters are alive, dead, and their allegencies as of the end of Dream Drop Distance... (I totally forgot about the whole plot of the Organisation XIII being basically like horcruxes from Harry Potter).