Noble Works is Decent:

Noble Works is an older work, so it's done in lower definition and with less artistic detail.  The girls are still attractive but not as attractive as the more recent crop.  The plot is also okay but not ideal.  The premise of the story is that a pauper meets a prince (son of a rich CEO) who look exactly alike, and they decide to trade places as a security measure since kidnappers are after the prince.

With this the pauper enters a glitzy school and meets various high class people and does high class activities like attend a ball with them.  Eventually he falls in love and lives happily ever after, the kidnappers are defeated, and the pauper trades his place back to the prince.

The problem is the main character isn't all that great, he resorts to lies and violence when it isn't necessary, and at least the first route I've finished, Hinata's, the girl isn't that great either.  She's rather dumb and talking with her gets repetitive fast.  There are four other girls left to romance so maybe they'll be better, but I chose Hinata because she seemed the most promising.  If that's the most promising. . .

There's still some great jokes and I like how realistically the romances occur, like a boy could actually score a high-class lady in this manner, but it's a step down from what I expect of Yuzusoft.  This makes it all the more bizarre that Noble Works got a translation but Tenshin Ranman didn't.  

I feel like the best part of playing all these visual novels is that I get to turn off the background music of the game and listen to my own wonderful playlist instead.  Every song is so amazing and there are 1423 of them.  With that many songs on shuffle it never gets old.  In a sense the visual novel is just bonus.  It's the same for when I reread '100 Waifus,' one of the best perks is I can listen to music while I'm doing so.  It's the same for Heaven Burns Red, I can turn off the music and listen to my own playlist instead -- though of course I turn the music back on when new content arrives.  The benefits of cultivating such a fantastic music collection are continuous and eternal.

Tomorrow a new event should debut in Heaven Burns Red, but sadly today it looks like I'll have to romance a new heroine in Noble Works instead.  If only tomorrow could come a little faster. . .

Riddle Joker Read:

I finished Mayu's route and with it all of Riddle Joker.  This on the same day I immortalized Riddle Joker by including it in my golden 300 franchises honored in '100 Waifus,' and the poster girl of Riddle Joker, Nanami, as one of Christopher's daughters.  Riddle Joker is worth the praise, but only because of Nanami.  Nanami was the best girl in Mayu's route.

In Mayu's route Satoru is caught spying on Mayu, but it turns out the two organizations they represent are on the same side, so they decide to cooperate to complete some scientific research.  Eventually they succeed and heal a bunch of injured espers, including Mayu's best friend.  Somewhere in there they start dating and having sex as well.  But Mayu is an annoying girl who is constantly denigrating herself (fishing for compliments?) and lying to hide her embarrassment.  She's sexy, like all the other girls in the game, but terrible wife material.  So high maintenance.  Being around Mayu is exhausting, while being around Nanami is invigorating.  It's all the difference.

I prefer working at a cafe over working as a secret agent, but I admit the 'spying with Nanami as my partner in stealth' was a more powerful feeling of closeness than coworkers at a cafe could ever produce.  Nanami saved Satoru's life and risked her own life.  That's something only Riddle Joker could do.

As I fell in love with Riddle Joker/Nanami, I fell out of love with Phantom Brave/Marona, to the point that I had to edit '100 Waifus' yet again despite the book being 'finished' last December.  That's just how great Nanami is and how bad Phantom Brave Lost Hero is.  But I'm convinced this is the final edit to the book, from here on it should be smooth sailing.  I already ordered a new paperback with all the new changes -- the name changes and the new Honoka date.  The name gallery is as good as it can get, given all the parameters it has to fulfill, and every plot hole due to not interacting enough with various waifus has been filled.  There shouldn't be anything left to correct.  The 50th edition really will be the charm.

I moved Albion (Day) up to 5-star, demoting Ultema - The Perfect Body to 4-star to make room.  Then I transferred Andy's theme song from Ultema to the much better After the Soldiers' Dreams, a heroic martial theme as opposed to a villainous one.  Now that Ultema wasn't 5-star I no longer had an obligation to attach a character to it.  My wonderful playlist consists of 1100 5-star songs, 195 4-star songs and 128 3-star songs.  But a large percentage of those 3 and 4 star songs, if they were rated 5-star, none would be surprised.  There's really a razor thin margin between the tiers.  That's why getting all the songs rated correctly has been so hard.  Recently I moved an Angel Beats song all the way from 1-star to 4-star -- Ichiban no Takaramono.  Rating 5,500 songs relative to each other correctly is harder than scoring a goal in the World Cup!

Now that I've finished Riddle Joker I can start Noble Works, the final English-translated Yuzusoft visual novel.  There's also the remaining 1/3 of Phantom Brave I still have to beat.  I feel like I've had more competing projects to work on this year than at any other time in my life.  For instance, in Heaven Burns Red I just beat the anachrony flat hand from chapter 4 part 1.  This rewarded me with an eternal daphne which I promptly granted to Hisame.  I now have 6 characters with eternal daphnes, but they don't actually make an ideal squad together, so I still need more daphnes before I get everything to work.  There are two anachronies left to best, and one of them has a daphne reward, the strongest one, so. . .

I hope Trump cracks down on the rioters hard this time.  The Democrats can't complain since they went so buck crazy about the January 6 protests.  If that's the new standard, any protest is an 'insurrection' and the worst event since 'the Civil War,' then we get to apply that standard too and arrest every last rioter in Los Angeles and keep them in jail without bail for the next 4 years.  That's how important quashing an insurrection is, right Democrats?  Sometimes rioters have legitimate grievances so it's hard to shoot them all, but this time they're rioting over the right to attack ICE so that illegal alien criminal gangsters can continue to victimize normal Americans for the rest of their lives.  This is such a beyond the pale 'grievance' that no one should tolerate it.  Something like 90% of Americans want criminal illegal aliens deported, and these riots are attacking ICE for doing the job the American people voted for them to do.  This is why Trump was elected.  There could me no more illegitimate a political protest than this -- basically these people are saying that democracy doesn't matter and if they lose the vote they'll just turn to violence and get their way anyway.  That's totally unacceptable.  And there's no reason to put up with it.

Preferably the National Guard would just mow these rioters down with machine guns, but like Putin Trump is a pussy, so some milkwater crackdown will be done instead.  But the riots must stop, one way or another.  Use kids' gloves, give out candy, whatever, but the riots must stop.  There can be no question in anyone's mind, anywhere in America, whether the federal government has the right to enact federal law as mandated by a nationwide election just a few months ago.  This needs to be made clear to the left half of the country, they're no longer in power.  Period.

Summer Anime Preview:

The summer season is as desolate as the spring season, or more, depending on whether Summer Pockets continues into summer or not.  There's only a few series even worth checking out --

City, Tate no Yuusha S4, A Couple of Cuckoos S2, Jidou Hanbaiki S2 and 9-Nine.

This fall is almost as desolate.  There's only Spy x Family S3 and Hero Academy Final to look forward to.  Basically anime went on vacation this year.  But that's okay, I have so many visual novels and video games to play that it doesn't matter.  It's also given me the chance to rewatch all the old great anime that I hadn't rewatched yet.

I beat Chapter 10 of Phantom Brave Lost Hero, putting me officially 2/3 of the way through the endless game.  I have a lot of complaints with the gameplay.  The way to power up is this extremely boring 'title' and 'fusion' process that ain't nobody got time for.  Each fight is actually a puzzle, not a fight, because the goal is to match your confinements and movements to where the pretty rainbow lines go, instead of taking out the enemy.  The pretty rainbow lines give wild enhancements to yourself or the enemy, making them more important than everything you've done to build up your own strength.  And these stupid rainbows cover the whole screen, making the whole world look ridiculous.  It's the exact opposite of FF Tactics' gritty atmosphere.

The plot is also bad.  I have zero empathy for the troubles of phantoms, because I'm not a phantom.  The whole story is about the travails of various phantoms and all the problems they face after death -- but I'm a human and I haven't died yet.  I feel nothing for any of them or any of their concerns.  They're all outlandish and silly since I don't even believe in ghosts, so none of these situations could ever actually emerge.  I get that a story titled Phantom Brave is about phantoms, but it turns out that's just a dumb idea to base a plot around.

I just want the game to end so I can move on to another game, but the game is endless.  It's so freaking long.  For good games that's a feature, but for bad games it's a curse.  I guess it isn't surprising to be cursed by a ghost. . .

Given how frustrating Phantom Brave Lost Hero is, I can no longer endorse it as one of the premier 300 works of art in history within '100 Waifus.'  I'm demoting Phantom Brave and Marona down to the 'silver 60,' and replacing her in '100 Waifus' with Riddle Joker and Nanami.  Nanami is one of the most fantastic fictional heroines ever and eminently deserves the spot.  I also took the opportunity to replace Cana, the drunkard in Fairy Tail, with Frey, the brave warrior in Dead Rock.  I had long ago realized Cana wasn't really deserving of praise, but I kept her in '100 Waifus' because of her relationship with Lucy.  But Frey also has a relationship with Lucy -- they're both the love interests of the male lead of their respective Hiro Mashima manga.  Also Lucy already gave birth to Yakuto so it makes sense that she would have Frey too.  That's an important sibling-sibling bond.

'100 Waifus' is much improved by having great girls like Nanami and Frey in it and by not having bad franchises or characters like Phantom Brave and Cana weighing it down.  Since I already had a new Honoka section edited in, this edit doesn't change anything, it still occurred before my 50th reading session so I'm still safe.

Now that Hisame has reached limit break level 3 I was able to up my score challenge boss high score to 317,000+, which bagged me a new skill guide bonus item.  It's still a far cry from the maximum score of 500k though.  I wonder when I'll ever get that strong.

All in on Hisame:

As an apology for how glitchy Heaven Burns Red has been, the game makers gave everyone 3,000 free quartz.  They also patched the problem where the game crashed every time you tried to close it -- though now it has a new problem where it can randomly be stuck at the 'now loading' screen in the middle of whatever you're doing.  But the 'now loading' glitch occurs less frequently than the 'always crashes when you try to close the game' glitch so it's still welcome progress.

The new quartz got me to 105 exchange points towards pajamas Hisame's free recruitment, out of the 150 required.  Since I already have pajamas Hisame, it would instead give me 10 shards that I can use to produce limit breaks.  If I didn't reach 150 those exchange points would become essentially worthless, turning into GGP with a few consolation uses.  So I decided it was actually more thrifty to buy more quartz now, so I could get the free shards with just a few more rolls, than to let all the prior exchange points go to waste and start over again on some new recruitment project from 0.

$90 later, I got pajamas Hisame to limit break level 3, swimsuit Tsukasa to limit break level 3, and shrine maiden Megumi to limit break level 3.  (Well, technically, Hisame and Megumi aren't level 3 yet, but they will be in three days so same difference.)

Why did I end up spending so much on Hisame?  It all comes down to her Munechika ability with its critical pierce function.  Hisame's Munechika is the strongest attack in the game.  It only costs 8 sp, cheaper than any other finishing move, but hits harder than any other finishing move.  This is because it automatically crits, which lowers the enemy's defense by 50 and does 50% extra damage.  The ability also enhances the skill's damage by 90% before striking, and counts as hitting the enemy's vulnerability, giving it another 300% damage boost.  It also does another 30% extra damage if it's hitting their shields, which is generally the case.  For 8 sp.  ::shakes head::

The ability is so strong I relied on it to beat the latest score challenge boss instead of Karen who was supposedly much stronger.  So I realized moving forward I would be better off with Hisame than Karen permanently, so I would have to start cultivating Hisame's limit breaks so she could be part of my power squad from here on.

Munechika is an introjectable ability, on top of all its other advantages, so I could use it on top of pajamas Hisame's special move, if I dedicated my limit breaks to pajamas form instead of her base form.  Her pajamas special move is also great -- it's a thunder attack that grants the whole party +8sp if it happens to break an enemy's shield.  Max strength bosses have 3 shields, so if you time it right and always break their shield with Hisame, that could give all 6 of your characters +24 sp, in other words it could generate 144 sp for your party if wielded correctly.  A typical special move costs around 13 sp, so that's 11 additional special moves for the cost of 3 well-timed Hisame specials.  It's almost as broken as Munechika.

Between these two specials I imagine I'll stick with pajamas Hisame for the rest of the game.  Also, Hisame is cute, so it's fun playing her.

Once my characters reach their full level potential that their limit breaks have unlocked, I'll take another crack at those orb bosses, anachronies, and score challenges that have all recently defied me.  Hopefully the result will be different next time.

Meanwhile, Final Fantasy Tactics is getting a new remastered version.  It will include the classic version of the game and a new and improved/expanded version, with new scenes and voice acting.  I've played FFT so many times, but I feel like it would be worth it to play again for the new content.  It's one of the only games worth playing over and over.

FFT wasn't really the game that needed an HD remaster, though.  That was supposed to be Chrono Trigger.  Or at least Xenogears.  Get it together, Squaresoft.  I also wish I could at least beat Phantom Brave Lost Hero and Lunar Remastered before any more games come out.  I have so many games sitting on my shelf unplayed as is.

I finished Hazuki's route in Riddle Joker, getting me to the last and surely worst route, Mayu's.  The bad news is I have to play Mayu's route, but the good news is once I finish this I can move on to Noble Works and play the best route from that Yuzusoft visual novel next.  So it's like how it's always darkest before the dawn.

Limelight Lemonade Jam:

I'm still in the middle of Hazuki's route in Riddle Joker, but Yuzusoft isn't waiting and has announced its next visual novel -- Limelight Lemonade Jam.  It comes out in September in Japan and who knows when if ever in America.  But I have high hopes for it -- every other recent Yuzusoft visual novel has received a translation, so why not this one?  And every Yuzusoft VN has been great so far, so I expect it'll be great when it is translated too.  2025 has become the year of Yuzusoft.

I spent most of the day trying and failing to beat the level 2 fire Orb Boss III.  It feels like if the game didn't cheat I would win slowly but surely via packing my squad with defenders and healers, but randomly the boss does so much damage that I get a character's shield broken even at max health.  Until I introject Tama with vivifying light that's a death sentence and I lose shortly thereafter.  If only I could hurry up and get my nordstrom crystals this boss would be nothing.

Hazuki has been more fun than I expected from her, but still isn't good enough to enter my hall of fame.  More room for the girls from Limelight.  :).

I did finish my rewatch of Bleach, DanMachi and Monogatari.  All that's left is my rewatch of Fairy Tail 100 Year Quest and I'll be all caught up on my rewatch of all anime in my top 200 rankings, proving all 200 franchises really are that great.

Elon Musk is having a hissy fit over stuff he apparently can't comprehend.  Reconciliation bills are possible to pass without being filibustered because they stick to narrow tax and spending categories, according to Senate rules.  The cuts Elon wants aren't possible to be done in reconciliation bills.  Meanwhile, if the tax cuts aren't renewed in this bill, America will suddenly get a 68% tax increase because the previous Trump tax cuts will sunset.  Why were the previous tax cuts written with a sunset clause in the first place?  Because reconciliation bills are required to be budget neutral, again according to the Senate rules.  So the tax cuts would have been unaffordable if they had been made permanent, which would have turned it into a normal budget bill, which could have been filibustered.

All the problems Republicans are having with getting a good bill passed have to do with the Senate filibuster.  The real solution isn't to keep changing the bill this way or that way -- it's to abolish the Senate filibuster, which exists nowhere in the constitution and was never meant to exist.  The filibuster has completely paralyzed the legislative branch of the government and banned the USA from passing any serious law for decades.  Congress has become basically defunct as a governing body because of the omnipresent use of the filibuster.  Americans want congress to pass various good bills -- like a permanent tax cut with no sunsets, or a ban on men playing in women's sports, or voter ID laws -- but the filibuster prevents everything.

Republicans need to show their voters that voting for them is useful, so they need to pass this bill.  It may not be perfect but it's better than a 68% tax increase.  I'm pretty sure no Republican voters voted for that.  Elon Musk is sabotaging an important bill for no reason.  How do Republicans benefit by becoming turbo-leftist Democrats and doubling tax rates?  Does that make any sense?  How does Elon benefit from this?

To make matters worse Elon is acting like a child and making wild accusations of Trump being a child rapist with no evidence, as well as threatening to strand astronauts in space and leave them to die.  Someone with such an unreliable character should not be the head of major companies or have hundreds of billions of dollars.  He's like a mad elephant just rampaging through town.  All for the 'sin' of wanting to prevent a 68% tax increase on everyday Americans.  That's why Elon is so mad and saying all these wild things.  It's totally bonkers.

I think Trump should sue Elon for defamation and make the fee be 500 billion.  That would shut him up pretty quickly.

P.S.:  Okay, I beat the fire Orb Boss III level 2, using the same healer oversaturate strategy.  The difference this time is I made sure to get to overdrive 3 before unloading all my buffs, debuffs, and hailstorms which the boss is vulnerable to.  This way all my hailstorms hit the boss at max power and while the boss was at min power, which made all the difference.  I didn't actually need more strength, just more strategy.

I moved Oh Unhappy Day, the end theme of SAOAGGO S2, up to 4-star, demoting some classical music to make room.  This made it eligible to be a theme song for a character, so I gave it to Lisbeth.  I also made Clear Weather After the Rain, Fight! and Managarmer Sequestration Primal character theme songs, as they were more suitable than their predecessors.  The main point being now my wonderful playlist is better than ever.

A Heavenly Investment:

The popularity poll winners recruitment period is winding down.  With no major source of free quartz incoming, if I wanted to recruit the best memorias of the best characters, as agreed upon by the whole community, I would have to fork over some cash.  On top of the paid quartz I bought earlier to get pajamas Hisame, I slapped down $75 more dollars to get what I wanted -- and I got everything I wanted.

I got tuxedo Tsukasa, waitress Erika and tuxedo Ruka, all brand new SS Memorias.  I also got pajamas Hisame a limit break, swimsuit Yuina a limit break, shrine maiden Megumi a limit break, and some SS shards which get me halfway to a level 3 limit break for shrine maiden Megumi.  Now my collection stands at 61 SS Memoria in all.

Earlier I had managed to accrue enough protean shards to get swimsuit Sumomo her level 4 limit break, so my next target is swimsuit Tsukasa's level 3 limit break.  I'll have enough protean shards for her in a few days.  My swimsuit-exclusive squad is getting pretty darn impressive.

I really wanted waitress Erika because her base SS Memoria is non-elemental, which basically means she does no damage to serious bosses, who all have a -80% to non-elemental damage modifier.  As a defender you could argue she doesn't need to do damage, but unfortunately I need everyone to do as much damage as possible to beat the next anachrony -- which kills you instantly on turn 41 if you don't kill it first.  Also score challenges and the clock tower take into account how quickly you defeat opponents, so basically there's no situation where I don't need my defenders to do damage.

Erika's incredible original ability, angel wings, which completely nullify enemy attacks, is probably the best ability in the game.  But thankfully it can be introjected, which means any Erika memoria can inherit this ability, on top of whatever exclusive abilities the new memoria has.  This means graduating from base Erika to waitress Erika basically doubles' Erika's strength.  The only problem is base Erika is at limit break 2 and waitress Erika is at level 0, so right now base Erika is much stronger.  But the latent potential. . .  Someday waitress Erika will be great.

Tuxedo Tsukasa is vital because she's only my 6th light-element SS Memoria.  That means I can field a full light squad for the first time.  Eventually I'll need my light squad to beat some dark opponent, and I can't do that shorthanded.  (Also I just like Tsukasa).

Tuxedo Ruka is necessary because I plan on playing as my plot party once the plot resumes in Chapter 5, and base Ruka is too weak to handle Chapter 5.  Base Ruka doesn't even have the inspiring spark ability, which gives you +3sp per turn instead of the normal +2.  That extra sp per turn is essential to all combat strategies once you get to high level play.  Base Ruka didn't even have any AoE or elemental attacks.  She was totally useless.  Tuxedo Ruka fixes all that.  It's actually astonishing how long into the game, over 200 days of playtime, it took for me to graduate from base Ruka.  I got base Ruka for free as part of advancing the plot of the game -- so in other words in all this time I never got a Ruka SS Memoria via recruitment.  Do you know how many recruitment rolls I've done?  It was getting pretty bizarre, like maybe my account was just banned from getting Ruka or something.  But thankfully the issue is finally solved.  Ruka is the main character of the game.  I should at least be able to play with a decent version of her.

I have so many long-term plans for my squads based around giving these new recruits the limit breaks they need to shine.  If you just recruit an SS Memoria, you can eventually make it strong -- but if you miss the recruitment window and fail to recruit a girl entirely, it doesn't matter how many nordstrom crystals or protean shards you accumulate, because you won't have that girl to enhance.  So first above all you have to at least recruit the girl, then shuffle her away into a corner of your mind until you can get around to her.  But at least have her ready on the shelf.  Someday you'll definitely need her, and the day you need her you'd better have her because the game doesn't let you go back and try to recruit them again -- this popularity poll was precisely this 'last chance' fallback recruitment for people who failed to recruit these people at the appropriate time.  If I had missed this 'last chance' retry as well it would have been grim.

By missing the base Tama SS Memoria, I went through a lot of grief -- a long period of the game where I had no healer who could fix broken shields.  By blind luck I got base Tama recently, but I still haven't actually unlocked her vivifying light ability for lack of nordstrom crystals.  I can't imagine how much easier the game would have been if I'd just recruited base Tama early like I was supposed to have.  Maybe in a month I'll have the ability that the game expected I would have a year ago.  >.<.  

I already regret not recruiting samurai Inori because I failed to realize how powerful her critical pierce ability was.  I could have had another ability as strong as Hisame's Munechika if I'd only realized.  I don't want to fall into that pit again.

It's measurable that I'm not keeping up with the game's expected strength level.  I can't even beat the flat hand anachrony of Chapter 4 part 1.  There are two anachronies after that, that are even stronger.  I'm supposed to be able to beat those guys.  They're bosses from chapters I've already beaten, after all.  I'm three bosses behind.  It's the same with Orb Bosses.  I haven't even cleared the fire Orb Boss III level 2, and there's a whole nother level of Orb Boss III's after that.  I'm not paying money for trophy warriors, just to look at because they're cute.  I'm actually trying to catch up to the power they want me to be at so I can genuinely complete the game's full content.

Meanwhile, I finished Ayase's route in Riddle Joker and started Hazuki's.  I do like the onion-like levels of intrigue in Ayase's story, it really leaned into its spy thriller theme.  The only problem is I don't like Ayase herself.

I also finished my rewatch of SAOAGGO S2, part of my goal to rewatch all great anime.  Soon enough I'll finish my rewatch of Bleach TYBW S3, Off & Monster Monogatari and DanMachi S5 too.  All very good series so it's been fun.

Happiness 2 available:

I downloaded the newly translated visual novel Happiness 2 (Sakura Celebration).  I'm a big fan of the original Happiness, and it's by the same company Windmill Oasis, so there's at least reason to hope it will be good.  Of course I have no reason to play it until I'm done with Riddle Joker and Noble Works, but it's always good to be prepared.

As for Riddle Joker I'm most of the way through Ayase's route.  She's very pretty but I can't say much for her personality.  The problem is I doubt the next two girls will be any better.  The game is nearly a chore now that Nanami is out of the limelight, which is one of the weaknesses of visual novels in general.  There's always a 'best girl' and then 'the rest.'  The longer you play the same visual novel the less rewarding it becomes.  But oh well, I already said Riddle Joker is a great game so I have to play it to the end.

Ukraine is trying to get itself nuked by deliberately violating Russia's nuclear doctrine.  Russia, like America, has a set of circumstances wherein it's allowed to use nukes -- both countries have the same rule -- if someone is attempting to disable their nuclear capabilities, then they'll launch all their nukes preemptively while they still can.  They won't wait until the enemy has succeeded, after which they'll be defenseless and incapable of retaliating against what would then be the follow-up nuclear attack.  There is a definitive logic to this rule that can't be gotten around -- the only reason anyone would be attacking your nuclear launch facilities is if they want to disable your nuclear retaliatory ability so that they can nuke you.  This is why all nations carefully avoid each other's nuclear launch capabilities, to make it clear that no nuclear first strike is in the offing, so there's no need to preemptively counterattack.

Until today.  Ukraine decided to attack Russia's nuclear bomber fleet, which is deployed far from the line of contact and hasn't engaged in the Ukraine war at all.  In freaking Siberia.  It's there to deter American nuclear attacks, but Ukraine sought it out and attacked it anyway, disabling at least some of Russia's nuclear strike force.  This should have led instantly to World War III, but Putin yet again wussed out and let it slide, as he wants to preserve the future of the world, unlike Ukraine.

It's good that we're all still alive today, but it's bad for Russia's future that now you can officially cross their nuclear red line and not get nuked.  What's next?  Will 'Ukraine' (really NATO) sink Russia's nuclear armed submarines and Putin will back down again?  Will NATO start to believe they can do a nuclear first strike and Putin will blink and not retaliate?  That must now be creeping in the back of their minds, since Putin has already flinched once.

On the other hand, you can argue that the nuclear bombers are an unimportant part of Russia's delivery vehicles, and only a few were damaged anyway, so it's okay to blow this attack off.  Obviously if Russia's nuclear delivery capability was really impaired then they'd really respond.  But is that so obvious?  That's the problem.  Is NATO absolutely confident Russia will use nukes if it has to?  Because if it isn't absolutely certain, Putin just signed Russia's death warrant.  This is the problem with making promises and then not keeping them.  Suddenly everything is fair game.

I've been complaining about Putin's behavior from the very beginning.  Because he didn't take this war seriously NATO has been escalating continuously and getting away with it.  If Putin had responded with full mobilization and completely trounced Ukraine in the first year NATO wouldn't have dared to attack Russia with conventional long range missiles or let 'Ukraine' sabotage Russia's nuclear arsenal.  But because Putin didn't take the war seriously, NATO learned that Putin wouldn't take their actions seriously, and while the cat's away the mice will play.  The end result of this deontological process is NATO nuking Russia and thinking they can get away with it.  This is the inevitable endgame of a leader who always flinches and never does what it takes to win.

If Putin wishes to restore his credibility in the west, if he wants his nuclear doctrine to be meaningful and feared, he should nuke Ukraine today.  But obviously he's chosen not to do that, so I guess instead Putin won't ever have credibility again.  That's this world's timeline, I'm just riding along on it.

Ukraine is gambling that by getting itself nuked, it will bring USA into the war.  I think the exact opposite would happen.  If Russia nuked Ukraine with the clear and obvious explanation that they're simply fulfilling their long standing nuclear doctrine, that anyone who attempts to sabotage their nuclear capability will be nuked before the sabotage succeeds, the whole world would suddenly start respecting Russia again and the war would end tomorrow.  People would say "Holy shit, Russia isn't playing around.  It's definitely time to cut Ukraine loose and save our own hides.  What was Ukraine doing, violating Russia's red lines, of course this is the result."

But Putin is a pussy so he won't do it so he won't deter anyone and the war will drag on and on.

Meanwhile, in Heaven Burns Red, I purchased enough rolls to get cat-pajama-Hisame.  She's beautiful and strong, but obviously without limit breaks I can't unlock her true potential.  As a fortunate side effect, I also got Tama's base SS Memoria, which has two vital abilities -- an AoE attack and a heal that restores people's broken shields.  Once I get enough Nordstrom crystals to introject Vivifying Light, I can deploy it as a skill wielded by max limit break, level 4 Magical Girl Tama.  Then Tama will truly be the absolute strongest in the game, and I'll be able to defeat anything the game throws at me.  So I unintentionally got a much more important SS Memoria than Hisame by pursuing Hisame.  I also got the new light-element Monaka SS Memoria, which is always nice, especially since it's the first SS Memoria of Monaka I've gotten.

I beat the level 2 versions of all the Orb Boss III's, except the one that's resistant to fire damage, because my fire users make up most of my power party.  I tried to scrabble together a decent group of girls who aren't fire-based, but they're a little bit too weak for the job.  A few more limit breaks and I feel like I could do it, but for now it's fruitless.  Orb Boss III's also have a level 3 version that's even stronger.  According to 'the recommended rating' I should be able to beat them, but in the real world they one-shot my strongest characters so that 'recommended rating' isn't remotely true.

What you're actually supposed to do is farm elemental-damage resistance bracelets, which would make their attacks more manageable, but that would require way too many life points that could go towards more beneficial projects.  So instead I'll just ignore the level 3 Orb III's until my rating is so much higher than the enemy that I don't have to follow the rules.

I used my power party to defeat all the Orb Boss III's, ignoring their elemental vulnerabilities.  This is because the ability to survive the enemy's attack is the only thing that matters.  If I can survive I'll win eventually, no matter how low my damage output is.  But if I can't survive the boss' attacks it hardly matters if my attacks do extra damage against them or not.  It's a shame because I'd much prefer to play with a diverse army of elemental squadrons all handling their own problems.  It would feel like my 58 SS Memoria collection was worthwhile that way.  I do in fact have full squads of every element type (except light, where I have 5 users).  But the reality is without limit breaks SS Memorias aren't playable, even against enemies who are weak to their element.

Limit breaks are the most precious resource in the game.  Collecting the beautiful new SS Memorias is the intoxicating part, but farming resources that can eventually be finagled into limit breaks for a chosen few is how you actually win the game.