Futamata Ren'ai Delivers:

As expected of a 'ren'ai' game, Futamata is also excellent.  I don't really get the protagonist's problems.  He achieved the school romance of his dreams, befriending the girl sitting in the desk next to him.  But then his father and her mother divorced and remarried each other, making them step-siblings.  This somehow psychologically destroyed both of them and they stopped going out, even though it shouldn't have made any difference.  Their parents are their parents, their romance is their own.  How does anything their parents do interfere with what they do with their own lives?

In any case, that meant Nao wanted to get a new girlfriend in order to shove away any prospect of renewing his relationship with Miyako.  But he accidentally, in his earnest efforts, managed to get two at once.  Thus the title, 'double-dating romance.'  But really you could call it triple dating, since Miyako still likes him and they still live together.  Anyway, there's a great deal of humor involved with him trying to juggle two girls at once without having them discover each other.  The problem is magnified once the two girls he's dating become friends and the three of them go to parties together, all while still not knowing.

One of the girls he's dating is a blonde bombshell with big breasts, Kirame.  She's the typical girl who's clumsy and bashful and excited about all the 'firsts' she's going through.  The other girl he's dating, Yua, is this cynical composed girl who treats dating like a game.  I like Kirame, as I figure all boys would, but Yua does have some justification for her standoffishness.  Her father died and her mother remarried and had a new daughter, making her feel like an accident or an obstacle to her mother's 'dream family life.'  She hated how her mother completely fell out of love with her father and in love with someone else, making all talk of 'love' seem cheap and phony.  To be fair, Yua is being irrational here.  Her mother didn't kill her father, he died of illness.  Her mother still had a long life ahead and it doesn't make sense to dwell in the past forever.  But those are Yua's feelings, whether they came about fairly or not.

I'll promote all three girls in the love quadrangle to my wonderful hall of fame.  Kirame can get Dimension Breach.  Yua can get Orphan Of Flame. (Fitting because she's a genuine orphan).  And Miyako can get Jellyfish Sea.  This completes the assignation of names to all 4-star and above Chrono Cross music, another soundtrack it would be a shame to miss out a single song on.

Owning every SS Memoria in the game was a short-lived dream.  Two new SS Memoria came out today and I failed to get either of them despite using all the paid quartz attempts to get them I could.  I guess it wasn't meant to be.  After spending so much money to achieve the goal once, it would be unaffordable to keep throwing money at the goal again and again.  I'll have to be satisfied with at least reaching that high-water mark once.  I did get a bunch of limit breaks and another eternal daphne, which is nice, but not what I wanted.  Most of the limit breaks were for memorias that don't matter and I don't use.  Dandy Misato got her first limit break, which is nice, but I still don't have a spot for her in any of my many fire squads.  That's how competitive the fire squad slots are.

I think I'll save this eternal daphne for a potential future recruit, perhaps admiral Nanami.  I've daphne'd all the characters I need to at the moment.

I got some nice new necklaces courtesy of the Astrarium, and two new master skills -- Yayoi's and Isuzu's.  Yayoi and Isuzu are strong, and thanks to these new skills they'll be even stronger.

Everyone's skill levels are at max except for kimono Akari.  I don't have to run dungeons anymore now that I'm this close to finished.

My ice squad aced the newest score challenge with a score of over 1.5 million.  Thanks to their efforts I'll be able to get shrine maiden Risa to limit break 3 in a few days.

Rito Route Cleared:

I finally finished the second route of Ren'ai Karigurashi.  Rito is an unexceptional girl with no memorable traits.  Black hair, medium-sized breasts, a nice girl who tackles life's problems responsibly.  Inoffensive is the best descriptor.

Next up is Hiyori's route, which should be more fun, given that she's a twintailed blonde.

I bought Tales of Xillia Remastered, which is important because I've never actually heard mai waifus' Japanese audio voices -- Leia and Elize.  This is inexcusable considering how much I venerated them in '100 Waifus.'  To think I've heard thousands of other anime girls' voices before theirs, when they're the ones I wanted to hear most.

In Heaven Burns Red I'm hard at work dungeon crawling in order to up the skill levels of my newly recruited memorias.  I have seven memorias left with below-max skill levels.  Out of hundreds that isn't bad but I'm always aiming for full clears.  A new event could occur in a couple days, but I suspect it will be something milder than that, given that Part 2 Act II just came out.  They try to trickle out content, not blast everything they have at once.  Maybe a new score challenge or Astrarium or something.

The entire spring season has debuted, and I only ever liked Nigetsuri and Witch Hat Atelier out of the debuting series.  I don't think I've ever had such a miss to hit ratio as this one.  Which is funny because last season I had the highest hit to miss ratio ever.  In any case, here's the finalized spring weekly episode watch guide:

1.  Honzuki no Gekokujou S4

2.  Release that Witch

3.  Mao

4.  Witch Hat Atelier

5.  One Piece

6.  Isekai Nonbiri Nouka S2

7.  Star Detective Precure

8.  Re:Zero S4

9.  Tensei Slime S4

10.  Tsue to Tsurugi S2

11.  Otonari no Tenshi S2

12.  Nigetsuri

13.  Lastame S2

Thirteen shows isn't bad.  I've returned to watching One Piece because One Pace has dropped the ball.  They haven't finished the Wano arc or the Egghead arc and the Elbaph arc has already started.  They had six months to catch up with the Egghead arc and achieved diddly squat.  I'd rather watch One Piece than nothing so One Piece it is.

$130 More:

In my fever to get imp Yayoi, I did 100 rolls.  In my desire to get wedding dress Charlotta and Seira, I did 110 rolls.  If you get to 150 rolls on a character, you can choose the SS Memoria you're aiming for and get it automatically for free.  I had already acquired the SS Memoria, but I could give them limit breaks if I got to 150, which in both cases was already most of the way complete.  So I decided at this point it was more efficient to go on rolling until I'd cashed in on the benefits of my previous rolls.  As a result of this further $130 investment, I got wedding dress Seira to limit break level 1, imp Yayoi to limit break level 2, an eternal daphne for wedding dress Seira and another one for shrine maiden Risa, who have recently proven their worth in tough battles, magicat Tenne to limit break 3, rococo Sumomo to 2.5, thunder Yuina to 2.5, shrine maiden Risa to 2.5, sheep Yotsuha to 2, and 5 protean shards, which gets me halfway to a limit break of my choice.

The two eternal daphnes are definitely the best aspect of this deal.  Now I have 31 SS Memoria with eternal daphnes.  These are the seraphs I can really rely on to take on the toughest opponents.  Bringing Seira and Risa into the fold gives me a lot of flexibility for future squad formation.  (Buffers and healers are useful pretty much anywhere).

But this doesn't do justice to what my $130 purchased.  Half of what I purchased is paid quartz that I haven't used yet.  This vast reservoir of paid quartz will get me many new SS Memoria in the future, so hopefully I can keep my 'all SS Memoria in the game collected' status for as long as possible.  (Wouldn't it be great if it were all the way to the end of the game?  What a dream that would be. . .)

I made a new fire squad to try and make idol Erika useful, and she was pretty effective.  The problem is the new squad was still weaker than my previous fire squads, which makes the whole effort sorta pointless.  But it did provide proof of principle that the potential I saw in idol Erika wasn't wrong.  It feels like only goddess Yingxia was a straight-out mistake.

Miya completed her training and got her new master skill, which awards +2 sp to the whole party every time she uses her exclusive skills.  Her exclusive skills cost either 14, 12, or 7 sp, based on various factors -- and the master skill generates a 12 sp benefit overall, so either Miya refunds the entire cost of her ability now, or even gives the party a profit for firing her arrows.  That's crazy good for a character who was already one of my strongest.  I used the extra skill slot Miya got for reaching title badge 10 to slot in her master skill without having to take out any of my previous skills, which makes her all the more overpowered.

I also unlocked Isuzu's master skill, which is cool, but I can't buy it for lack of shards.  If I did have shards I would get Yayoi's master skill bubble destroyer, since she's suddenly my most important character now, so it wouldn't help Isuzu anyway.

Love Live! Nijigasaki movie 2 came out and it was decent.  I don't like Nijigasaki that much, or the idols in this movie in particular, but Love Live! is such a solid franchise that even its weakest portions are worthy.  I've already watched the movie twice.

Witch Hat Atelier is a great anime:

After watching the first two episodes of Witch Hat Atelier, I'm convinced this will go on to become a great anime.  I gave it the ranking of #180.  To make room I combined Demons Crest with SAO, since it's the same damn story -- kids playing a VRMMO get stuck in it and now it's like real life -- written by the same author.  At that point it may as well be the same franchise.

Now all my ranked anime have properly actually aired, which is how it should be.  Mao and Witch Hat Atelier have been spectacular and are sure to make the spring season enjoyable.  None of the other debuting series this spring have impressed me.  Nigetsuri is the only other watchable one.  The rest of the good series this spring are all continuations.

I made Coco, the heroine, a wonderful character and gave her the theme song of Star-Stealing Girl.  It's extremely fitting since the first thing she did was 'steal' the knowledge of how to create magic.

The art and animation of Witch Hat Atelier is top notch.  The way she moves is so natural, and I love how many small movements there are per frame.  You can tell the makers of this work wanted it to sparkle, like Kimetsu no Yaiba sparkles.

Spring season series are still debuting, but I don't have much hope for any of the remainder.  I'll go on trying and seeing though.

If I keep up the good work, I'll complete Miya's master skill training tomorrow.  I'm also making good progress on Isuzu's master skill training, but I don't have any spare shards for her even when it unlocks.  Similar to Gig Mode, I've now acquired all the available loot in the Clock Tower.  I did Hell Mode up to the point there was no further point, which is the same as completely clearing Hell Mode.

Israel is still bombing Lebanon and the strait of Hormuz is still closed, so it looks like the ceasefire has already failed.  It never made sense for there to be a ceasefire in the first place, as the two sides can't possibly come to an accommodation they hate each other so much.  Either Iran or Israel must cease to exist, because the Islamic Republic of Iran is too fanatical to accept any other result.  Israel needs to nuke Iran into submission.  This has always been the obvious solution from the beginning.  None of these talks will ever get anywhere until Iran fears Israel.  And nothing America or Israel is currently doing scares Iran in the least.  Therefore no talks can possibly succeed.

Gig Mode Victory:

Gig Mode is too difficult for me on hard mode.  I don't understand how any human, honestly, could play on hard mode or higher.  But the game is more forgiving than that.  It only requires you to be able to clear normal difficulty to get all the rewards available.  I reaped the final 19 lifestones from gig mode and used them all on the latest event boss, getting plenty of tokens to buy all the event loot available.  Even on normal difficulty it's possible to reap all the rewards in the game, so that's good enough for me.

Due to my efforts in gig mode, I reached player rank 130, which gave me my latest eternal daphne.  I used it on imp Yayoi, who's way stronger than I initially thought.  I was just collecting her as a collector's item, the last SS Memoria to top off my collection of 154 SS Memoria.  But it turns out she's possibly the strongest Memoria in the game.  Her Mega Destroyer technique only costs 8 sp and has no use limit.  Her Friend-Calling Dance ability gives everyone, permanently, 40% up to exposed enemy damage and +1 sp regeneration per turn.  I put her in my critical penetration squad, so that 'exposed' status will always be active, because everything counts as exposed to critical penetration attacks.  She gives a permanent free +100% buff to everyone's sp attacks that cost 8 and under.  So I put her in a new fire squad where 5/6 of the characters' exclusive abilities cost 8 or less -- swimsuit Adelheid, hot springs Isuzu, wedding dress Ichiko, wedding dress Seira, and imp Yayoi herself.

With six henchmen, which requires a couple turns to set up, her Mega Destroyer technique does 500% extra damage, on top of the +100% dp damage it already does, and the +100% skill attack for being an 8 or under sp attack.  Oh, and it gets two stacks of multihit, each of which do 3 additional hits that are 25% normal strength.  So if my math works correctly that's another +150% damage.  Oh, and don't forget the +40% damage due to the enemy being 'exposed,' because it's a critical penetration attack.  And don't forget the +50% damage innate to an attack being a crit, and the -50 to the enemy's defense due to the attack being an automatic crit.  It's absolutely overwhelming.

Imp Yayoi's potential isn't done yet.  At level 3 limit break she extends a broken enemy's down status by an additional turn.  (basically giving the party an extra turn).  At level 4 limit break she gives the party a free bar of overdrive.  I only have imp Yayoi at level 1 limit break.  If I gave her a healthy helping of protean shards she could become a true monster.

She's the best buffer and the best damage dealer in the game.  It's totally absurd.  Who needs an admiral when you can have an imp?

I currently have a backlog of 11 characters stuck at 2.5 or 3.5 limit breaks, so my first priority for protean shards has to go to them.  Tomorrow I'll get the protean shards I need to elevate one of those .5's to a round number, probably admiral Aoi.  I keep praising how strong she is so I should at least give her the opportunity to shine at her brightest.  But someday I'll get imp Yayoi to full strength, and she'll be a terror when that happens.

Sadly dandy Misato, who I thought was going to be an important ally going forward, has been totally sidelined as a result of all these new acquisitions.  I can't find a spot for her in any of my three fire squads.  The main problem is she's limit break 0 and all her competitors are limit break level 4.  Not much can be done about a gap as wide as that.  I've given out 29 eternal daphnes now, and Misato didn't turn out to use her's well.  The two gravest wastes of daphnes are idol Erika and goddess Yingxia, though.  Idol Erika couldn't be helped, I had no idea that she would soon be superannuated by the strictly superior admiral Erika.  In the same manner, Goddess Yingxia is hopelessly inferior to rider Nanami.  They both buff lightning attacks and skill attacks in general, but Nanami buffs people more in both cases, by a wide margin, while also doing damage to the enemy.  Yingxia should dig herself a hole and bury herself in it, she's so embarrassingly weak.

I have enough shards to acquire another master skill, but I want to purchase Miya's and the requirements to unlock her master skill are crazy.  I have to use her exclusive skill 221 times in battle.  It's an expensive skill too, requiring at least 12 sp.  I'd have to battle a very long time for that to happen.  If I put her in dungeon runs I could at least get credit for 5 'uses' per use, by multiplying the battles by 5 per battle in the dungeon.  But my dungeon party currently consists of a bunch of new recruits trying to learn their new skills.  I suppose I could shove Miya in regardless and say she takes priority, but the skills people are trying to learn are things like Mega Destroyer, which are also pretty darn important. . .

Surprisingly, Trump and Iran have declared a ceasefire, where negotiations will resume.  I don't see why Iran would negotiate since they're completely in the winning position.  Trump already ruled out using nukes against Iran, which is the only serious threat we pose to them.  Meanwhile they pose a serious threat to the world economy and have already shown their willingness to act on that threat by closing the strait of Hormuz.  When one side has leverage and the other doesn't, why would you agree to a ceasefire and disarm your most effective weapon?  With the strait of Hormuz open Iran has no leverage again.  It's stupid to negotiate from a position of weakness, so logically these negotiations shouldn't be occurring.  But I've never understood Iran's reasoning, they seem to be totally insane.  They want to enrich uranium to nuclear bomb levels but not make nuclear bombs.  They want to close the strait then open it again as a gesture of 'goodwill' during negotiations.  They were okay with a ceasefire after the 12-day war with Israel when they were winning after Israel's duplicitous sneak attack.  Then they got hit again by a second duplicitous sneak attack less than a year later, and learn nothing, signing up for another ceasefire.  Iran is so contemptible.  They're so strong, but their brains are so mushy they lose all the same.

This doesn't mean I don't have an equal share of contempt for America.  We spent trillions of dollars on this military, putting our nation $40 trillion into debt, so that we could be militarily defeated by a nation that only spent $8 billion on their military.  That's fraud on the most massive scale in human history.  If a product doesn't do what it advertises it can do, it's defective and the consumer should be able to return it to the producer for a refund.  I want a refund on our $40 trillion debt.  None of our weapons do anything.  We can't defeat anybody with them.  Low cost missiles and drones drove our entire navy, air force, and army away from Iran's shores.  We couldn't get near them with anything.  We ran out of missile defense and drone defense well before they ran out of missiles and drones.  What were we thinking, stockpiling all these hyper-expensive anti-missile missiles, when there's such an obvious solution, which is just to shoot more missiles at lower expense than you can shoot them down?  Did that never occur to anyone when they were buying these toys?

Once again I find myself incapable of supporting Iran or Iran's enemies.  Both sides always seem insane, stupid and evil.

The $155 Victory:

Through good luck and free rolls, I acquired two of the remaining 3 SS Memoria in Heaven Burns Red I didn't yet own (magician Isuzu and street clothes Yingxia).  Taking this as a sign from God, I resolved to get the last missing SS Memoria at any price, and be able to declare victory over the game.

I've beaten all the anachronies with 3 stars, I've beaten the main scenario last boss, I've beaten all the events and secret bosses, I've beaten everything in the game -- except this one missing SS Memoria I hadn't collected yet.  For one brief shining moment, before they release new SS Memoria, I can declare total and complete victory over the game.

So I started spending, and rolling, then spending, and rolling, then spending, and rolling.  $155 later I got imp Yayoi and won the game.  But that wasn't all my $155 got me.  It got me 5 protean shards, imp Yayoi limit break level 1, sheep Yotsuha limit break level 1, hot springs Isuzu level 2, shrine maiden Risa level 2, tuxedo Karen level 2, celestial Seika level 3, reindeer Bon Ivar level 2, schoolgirl Hisame level 2, swimsuit Mari level 3.5, and two eternal daphnes, which I promptly used on cute Karen and wedding dress Ichiko.  That gets me to 28 talent unlocked SS Memoria in all.  I have 27 max limit break level 4 SS Memoria, a lot of whom overlap with those 28.

That's a healthy clip of $13 per SS Memoria.  I also have 11,000 leftover paid quartz, so it's actually cheaper than that.  I'll use the paid quartz in the coming months to try to extend my 'own all SS Memoria in the game' victory for as long as possible.  I never actually intended to own all the SS Memoria in the game, but when I kept getting closer and closer to the goal, when such great fortune fell into my lap, it would feel remiss to not at least once shoot the moon.  I'm so happy I completed one last trophy to put on my trophy case.  The greatest game ever, my most beloved game ever, the most expensive game ever, and the game I succeeded at most.

I also completed the duello minigame.

Chapter 5 Part 2 Act 2 beaten:

The best thing that could possibly happen in the story happened -- Karen overcame her split personality.  She's now the sweet, cute, kind, beautiful, talented and strong girl I always knew she could be.  Karen left her demented personality behind but is now willing to fight as her cute self, with an all new cute scythe and cute SS Memoria.  Which the plot itself gave me near the end of the main scenario, and then was vital to defeating the last boss.

I've wanted to play as cute Karen since the game started, years ago.  The progression of her psyche didn't come easy, it took months and endless debates with psycho Karen, and then a tearful farewell that made me want to cry too.  It was the perfect resolution, the well-earned resolution only a perfect writer could come up with.  I respect Jun Maeda so much.

That I got to defeat the last boss of Chapter 5 with cute Karen was the cherry on top.  What an unforgettable experience.  Cute Karen was allowed to reach limit break level 4 for free, and the last dungeon gave me a lumen crystal which let me synthesize her memento to max, and the last dungeon had a 'memoria level +10' book which let me get her 2/3 of the way to max memoria level.  They really wanted to make it easy and fun to play with the new cute Karen.

Cute Karen is strong enough that she makes sense in my ice squad.  She isn't strong enough to compete with red riding hood Karen in my fire squad.  But strength isn't everything.  Cuteness is everything.

The main scenario had two other subplots -- Bon Ivar going to live off the land with amnesia for a while, and awakened Tsukasa solving the mystery of the countdown.  They were both good stories, but they're nothing compared to the first ever time you can play as cute Karen.  Bon Ivar raging on Karen in the infirmary made all my camping in the woods with her worth it.  It was all for that one scene.

I haven't slept in days, I've been playing HBR nonstop.  The only pause was to watch the Final Four of March Madness.  But after that it was right back to the main scenario of HBR.  What a game.  I genuinely spent Easter in Heaven.